Enhancing stakeholder engagement in cancer research is essential for advancing the relevance, impact, ethicality, and equity of research outcomes. Engaging patients, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, and community representatives in the research process enables synergistic optimisation of potential impact. The PERIFORMANCE project focuses on promoting local action for Mission: Cancer and aims to leverage the federated biobanking domain as focal points for transdisciplinary research and innovation activities with European outreach. Biobanks, particularly those using population cohorts dedicated to cancer research, set the sampling frame to explore best practices and identify needs in the context of stakeholder engagement. PERIFORMANCE goes beyond the standard patient/public involvement (PPI) practices and adopts a quadruple helix perspective on stakeholders, which includes patients and donors, research and healthcare professionals, industry partners, and policymakers. By addressing the use of AI and EHDS in biobanking within cancer research, the project aligns with the call’s objectives to foster systemic solutions at a time of major sociotechnical transformations. Its emphasis on ethical, legal, and societal dimensions resonates with the call’s focus on ensuring that technological advancements contribute positively to public trust and societal well-being. PERIFORMANCE prioritises broad dissemination and training, ensuring its outcomes are widely accessible and scalable. Its approach supports the call’s goal of achieving broad, lasting impact across Europe, reinforced by an open call for bottom-up engagement exercises in diverse contexts, considering local or regional needs. PERIFORMANCE will contribute to the EU’s Mission: Cancer by fostering informed participation among stakeholders, enhancing the ethical use of new technologies and boosting the relevance and equity in public policy and research outcomes.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal of female cancers, often termed a “silent killer”. DISARM’s overall approach to tackle the significant gaps in hereditary OC management lies in tackling both key elements of risk assessment and early detection. The project will investigate multifactorial risk assessment versus standard practices in 4 EU Member States (MS) (Lithuania, Portugal, Czech Republic, and Greece), and will upscale and validate a set of easy-to-use, highly accurate and affordable technologies in five countries (UK, Lithuania, Portugal, Czech Republic, and Greece). Several intelligent digital assets will optimally support and enhance our clinical studies, while a range of multifaceted activities will ensure the future uptake and adoption of DISARM solutions. The project aligns with the Innovation Action character of this topic by focusing on both mature technologies that can be upscaled in routine healthcare and on emerging technologies that have already shown a potential to justify larger scale validation activities. Our ultimate ambition is to holistically investigate the preconditions and set the stage for rolling out proven solutions in routine OC risk assessment, and in parallel to create further evidence for the introduction of novel promising elements in early detection programmes. DISARM gathers 26 partners from 12 countries (10 EU MS, the UK and Canada), thereby exhibiting a significant geographic coverage, strengthening European and international collaboration and ensuring widespread diffusion of the project results. This action is part of the Cancer Mission cluster of projects on ‘Prevention and Early Detection (early detection heritable cancers)

The SHIELD project seeks to revolutionise early detection of pancreatic cancer, focusing on individuals with high heritable genetic risk. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a 5-year survival rate of less than 10%, primarily due to late-stage diagnosis. Consequently, 85% of PDAC cases are identified too late for curative treatment. However, early detection can significantly improve outcomes, increasing the survival rate to 42% with surgical intervention. There is a pressing need for better early detection methods, especially for those with familial or genetic predispositions. The only FDA-approved biomarker, CA19-9, is limited to monitoring treatment response due to its lack of sensitivity and specificity, while imaging methods ofter fail to detect early-stage cancers and cause a strain to the healthcare system due to their cost and limited availability. SHIELD aims to validate a new blood-based diagnostic test designed for early PDAC detection in high-risk individuals and pilot an early detection programme in Greece, Slovenia and Lithuania. Developed by partner Reccan, this test uses a 5-plex multiple immunoassay to analyze protein readouts and provides a probability score for pancreatic cancer. Initial studies with over 450 samples showed excellent performance with >91% sensitivity and >96% specificity. The project will validate the test's clinical performance in a prospective multi-center study across seven EU countries, targeting individuals with familial or genetic predispositions. It will also identify new protein biomarkers for other high-risk indications, such as new-onset diabetes (NOD). Collaboration with national screening authorities will help integrate this test into existing programs, and partnerships with patient organizations will enhance recruitment. SHIELD envisions transforming pancreatic cancer diagnostics by increasing the 5-year survival rate to 30% by 2035 in Europe. This action is part of the Cancer Mission cluster of projects on “Prevention & early detection (early detection heritable cancers)

BRECISE is a Public-Private Partnership Project, co-funded by the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) of the European commission aiming at creating a collaborative ecosystem to accelerate the clinical validation of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based, multi-modality Artificial Intelligence (AI) oncology biomarkers and related technologies. By addressing technical and regulatory challenges, the consortium unites diverse expertise and resources to validate novel prostate and bladder cancer biomarkers, ensuring their efficacy and clinical utility. This initiative aligns with the goal of advancing precision medicine in oncology, ultimately improving patient outcomes and streamlining personalized cancer care. BRECISE's primary objective is to enhance biomarker-driven approaches for patient risk stratification, disease progression prediction, and treatment response assessment, within the framework of precision medicine. The project addresses the current challenge of limited access to clinically validated prognostic and predictive biomarkers in oncology. By providing healthcare professionals with NGS-based, multi-modality AI oncology biomarkers, BRECISE aims to enable precise disease risk assessment and informed treatment selection, contributing to more personalized and effective patient care. The impact of BRECISE is transformative, aiming to revolutionize risk assessment and treatment selection in oncology, facilitating the implementation of precision medicine. This will significantly reduce unnecessary and ineffective treatments, optimizing patient care and minimizing side effects. The validated biomarker technologies empower researchers to develop safer and more effective personalized treatments, advancing precision medicine. These advancements will enhance the competitiveness of European health industries, positioning them at the forefront of innovation and healthcare excellence. Overall, BRECISE is expected to significantly improve patient outcomes, enhance healthcare efficiency, and bolster the global standing of European health industries.