PRostate cancer OMics Oriented inTErvention

ongoing

PROMOTE focuses on multidisciplinary education of doctoral candidates (DCs) in -omics and artificial intelligence (AI) mediated intervention to improve clinical management of Prostate Cancer (PCa). PCa is the second most common malignancy, affecting ~1.3 million men every year worldwide. Tragically, there is a treatment paradox, as ~45% of PCa patients experience slow-growing cancer and are unlikely to progress rapidly, while PCa is not curable at advanced stage. Evidently, clinical management of PCa is not optimal, as patients which do not require treatment are over-treated, while for those that immediate actions are required, efficient treatment are still needed. To fill the above gaps, PROMOTE was formed to educate DCs in emerging -omics and AI technologies and deliver: a) novel non-invasive tools (based on biomarker- and AI- models) to guide intervention, and b) more efficient treatment options for advanced PCa (particularly metastatic) driven by molecular characterisation of the disease phenotypes. PROMOTE brings together 13 leading centers from different disciplines, including 3 SMEs, 4 university hospitals with clinical laboratories and 2 research institutes and 4 universities, closely collaborating with solid scientific background, as demonstrated by multiple publications. PROMOTE research builds on: i) available biobanks and -omics datasets within PROMOTE consortium, including >3000 urinary proteomics, >1100 imaging datasets paired with biopsy and pathology data, >350 paired RNA and proteomics urinary profiles, >100 tissue proteomics and ~300 phospho, proteo-genomic and transcriptomics profiles from public repositories, ii) established software and analytical protocols on -omics data integration, AI feature extraction and integration, systems biology, pathway enrichment, drug repurposing and in vitro testing, and iii) infrastructure to support hosting and training of DCs. Moreover, PROMOTE training programme has strong innovation and industrial focus.