Virtual twin to improve treatment with cancer immunotherapies
In recent years, cancer immunotherapies have established another pillar in medical oncology alongside the classic treatment options (surgery, radiotherapy & chemotherapy). The advantages of personalised treatment approaches, such as CAR-T cell therapy, also include more precise phytotyping of individual patients.
For diagnosis, treatment decisions and follow-up, numerous clinical, imaging, molecular and cell analytical data are collected and processed for each patient. The totality of all patient data within a clinical picture harbours enormous potential for improving diagnosis and therapy for future patients. One approach to realising this potential is the concept of the virtual twin. This involves combining certain molecular and cellular characteristics of a person and their clinical progression data to create a digital image, which is regularly updated based on a series of data variables. Using comparative data from patients with similar characteristics, the virtual twin can then be used to simulate prognoses for the course of the disease or various treatment options.
Corresponding concepts for virtual twins and initial, promising models already exist in the field of cardiovascular diseases. In the EU project CERTAINTY, modules are now to be developed for a corresponding virtual twin for the treatment of cancer patients with CAR-T cell therapies. In future, this should support doctors in selecting the best possible therapy and also relieve the burden on the healthcare system through the more efficient use of cost-intensive drugs.
The virtual twin will initially be developed as an example for multiple myeloma (MM), a malignant disease of the bone marrow. It is intended to comprehensively reflect the individual pathophysiology of patients who are eligible for or undergoing cellular immunotherapies and to be updated on a regular basis. A particular focus is on the integration of molecular patterns into the digital calculation models. Other key technologies include the collection and processing of large amounts of data (big data processing), machine learning, personalised in vitro models and software-supported mechanistic models. Another focus of work is the development of interfaces that ensure data access and interaction between different physical and digital systems, always taking data protection into account.
Further aspects that are taken into account in the project are the integration of socio-economic factors that can influence the course of the disease, as well as future applications for patients.
In addition to project management, Fraunhofer IZI is contributing its expertise in the field of personalised medicine and molecular diagnostics. As part of the project, the institute will develop digital computational models that can be used to identify individual disease progression using molecular or genetic patterns of patients or CAR-T cells.
Project coordinator Dr Kristin Reiche, head of the Bioinformatics working group at the Fraunhofer IZI, explains: "For CERTAINTY, we will build on existing computer-aided models of human biology. We want to combine these with novel models for genetically modified immune cells such as CAR-T cells in order to analyse the individual course of disease and therapy for each patient.
The EU consortium »CERTAINTY – A cellular immunotherapy virtual twin for personalised cancer treatment« is being funded by the European Union with almost EUR 10 million over the next 4.5 years.
PARTNERS
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany
· Fraunhofer IZI (project coordination)
· Fraunhofer SCAI
· Fraunhofer IMW
Universitätsmedizin Leipzig, Germany
Singleron Biotechnologies GmbH, Germany
Collaborate Project Management, Germany
Myeloma Patients Europe AISBL, Belgium
TriNetX Oncology GmbH, Germany
Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Information Technology for Translational Medicine, Luxembourg
Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Germany
Institut Curie, France
University of Namur, Belgium
Universitair Medisch Centrum (UMC) Utrecht, Netherlands
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), Netherlands
HealthTree Foundation, USA
Roche Pharma AG, Switzerland
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