Advances in research mean that for many cancers, there are more treatment options than ever. Physicians face a growing number of diagnostic tests, treatments and guidelines, making it increasingly challenging to ensure each patient receives the right treatment.

The aim of OPTIMA is to harness the power of artificial intelligence to advance treatments and facilitate decision-making for physicians and patients with prostate, breast and lung cancer.

At the heart of OPTIMA will be Europe’s first interoperable, large scale oncology data and evidence generation platform with data from over 200 million people. The platform, which will be GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant, will host data sets, data analysis tools, federated learning tools, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

The project will use the platform to drive the generation of new knowledge by developing advanced analytics and AI models to identify, prioritise and fill the main knowledge gaps in prostate, breast and lung cancer, and propose improved clinical guideline recommendations. Finally, they will develop AI-based decision support tools that can help clinicians, together with their patients, make treatment decisions based on the leading clinical practice guidelines.

By designing the platform based on the needs of clinicians and patients, and by including the major guideline offices for prostate, breast and lung cancer, the project is well placed to have an impact care down the line.