Owkin launches in Spain with Hospital Ramón y Cajal, using AI to optimize cancer treatment

• Owkin signs 4 year partnership agreement with Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal (IRYCIS) to use AI to improve outcomes for cancer patients
• The first research project will use AI to improve therapeutic strategies for early detected prostate cancer by identifying which patients would benefit from therapies that are normally set for different stages of the disease
• Owkin is supporting the set up of a structured database for IRYCIS, enabling them to securely unlock the power of their data for future AI research while protecting data governance and patient privacy.

Owkin and Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal announced today a new four year partnership agreement aiming to use artificial intelligence to improve patient outcomes, starting with prostate cancer. 

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer type for men; roughly one in eight men will be diagnosed in their lifetime. Some patients diagnosed with early stage disease may not need treatment, whilst others with locally advanced prostate cancer will typically be offered primary curative treatments, based on a simple risk stratification. 

The first research project in this collaboration aims to identify which early stage patients are most likely to fail primary curative treatment and ultimately progress to more severe disease and anticipate if they may benefit from a different management strategy. Researchers will use AI to detect specific determinants that would identify ideal candidates for early intervention, paving the way for more personalized treatment strategies which could ultimately improve patient outcomes. The first project is executed in collaboration and funded by Janssen Pharmaceutia NV.

Owkin is also helping IRYCIS set up IT infrastructure to anonymise and store data locally, meeting GDPR and LO 3/2018 requirements while unlocking its potential for AI research by enabling the combination of different data sets from multiple sources, preparing the hospital for future projects. 

This is the first partnership agreement for Owkin in Spain, expanding its existing network across France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Greece, Canada and the United States. The techbio company recently started its operations in the country, but expects to rapidly build a hub for research thanks to Spain's impactful research community and excellent healthcare coverage.

Fernando López Campos, MD, PhD, Msc, Clinical Oncologist at PI at Ramón y Cajal Hospital, said:

Our research objectives are always driven by impacting patients' lives, and in this sense, the current project is going one step forward in the personalized medicine field. This project will allow us not only to participate in the improvement of prostate cancer treatment approaches, but also will generate an AI-ready database that we could capitalize on in many other future projects.

Emma González, Biomedical and Healthcare Innovation Manager at IRYCIS, said:

We want to be at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence applied to biomedicine. This is already included in our strategic plan, and the partnership with Owkin is providing us support, visibility and networking opportunities to foster our plans.

Agathe Arlotti, SVP Partnerships at Owkin, said:

We are excited to help Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal in fostering their AI strategy by using Owkin expertise and resources – starting with prostate cancer. By helping them curate and structure their data through privacy enhancing technologies, we look forward to helping the hospital maximize the value of their data and enable future research collaboration to power the future of AI biomedicine in Spain.

Francisco Torres, Principal Partnerships Manager Spain and Portugal, said:

The Spanish healthcare system has an excellent coverage of patients, and the country's research ecosystem is excelling. Therefore, these factors effectively pave the way for a promising present and future of precision medicine in Spain. In this context, we are thrilled to expand our work here.

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About IRYCIS

The Ramón y Cajal Health Research Institute (IRYCIS, https://www.irycis.org/en/) is an accredited Health Research Institute of the Community of Madrid, Spain, whose main mission is to be a space dedicated to the excellent biomedical research produced in Ramón y Cajal University Hospital. IRYCIS is aimed at generating useful knowledge for the identification and treatment of current or potential diseases and, therefore, with a marked translational character in the permanent search for an impact on society and with the vocation of becoming a national and international reference, applying a philosophy of quality and continuous improvement in all its actions. It currently has 42 research groups organized into 6 Areas and is home to more than 1.100 people working in research and innovation. 

Related to our research Institution, only in 2022, we had: 25 active European projects, 101 national competitive projects, 118 ID projects, 1243 active clinical trials, 246 projects funded by private entities, 1284 papers published, with an average IF 9.75, 120 innovation projects ongoing with 44 innovations transferred or in clinical use.