Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in European women. As a result of diagnostic tests and treatments, a large volume of breast cancer related data has accumulated.
Project Coordinator Iván Macia of the Spanish research center Vicomtech-IK4 says: "These data contain valuable information which, if utilised properly and sufficiently, may support early diagnosis and better treatment of new patients. But the available information has outgrown the analytical capacity, also due to the fast introduction of digital technologies in medicine in recent years."
Bringing all information together
With a total budget of €3.340.720, the EU Horizon 2020 funded project called Decision Support and Information Management System for Breast Cancer (DESIREE) will address this challenge by developing technologies that bring together all information and process it accurately, smartly and in a multidisciplinary fashion.
Macia: "The technologies will be integrated into a web-based collaborative system that accelerates the management of all available information of breast cancer cases, provides a more customised and holistic view of the patient, obtains new evidence based on accumulated and collaborative experiences, and provides agile, intuitive and visual tools for clinical decision support."
Predicting breast cancer evolution
Apart from developing a complex decision support system for case discussion in Breast Units, the DESIREE project aims at developing tools to exploit the rich information that may be extracted from medical images. This would be useful for the prognosis and evolution of the clinical treatment based on images, allowing to predict the evolution of the breast cancer through non-invasive techniques (mammography, magnetic resonance, digital tomosynthesis, etc.).
Moreover, an innovative technology will be developed simulating the breast surgery and subsequent healing process based on the physiological model, which will predict the aesthetic result of the surgery and will have important implications in the interaction of the doctor with the patient and in the decision making of the patient.
"Our project intends to be an international benchmark in the efficient use of medical digital data of any kind with the aim of improving the clinical breast cancer practice", Macia concludes.
About the project
DESIREE is an international consortium coordinated by the research centre Vicomtech-IK4 (ES). Partners include major hospitals in Paris, Spain and Houston and several universities, European research centres, large companies and SMEs: Arivis AG (DE), Assistance Publique – Hopitaux de Paris (in particular Tenon Hospital) (FR), Bilbomática SA (ES), ERESA SL (ES), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Medicale (FR), Medical Innovation and Technology (GR), Onkologikoa (ES), Sistemas Genómicos SL (ES), Ulster University (UK) and University of Houston (US).
This research and innovation project started in February 2016 and has a duration of 36 months. DESIREE has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 690238.
www.desiree-project.eu
Twitter: @desiree_project