PANcreatic CAncer Initial Detection via liquid biopsy

As 2025 draws to a close, we look back at a year marked by strong scientific progress, meaningful engagement, and growing momentum for improving early detection of pancreatic cancer.

The year began with a major milestone: PANCAID’s Stakeholder Dialogue Event at the European Parliament in Brussels, which brought together 55 participants from 21 countries and 31 organisations, including patient advocates, healthcare providers, industry, medical societies, and public institutions. The discussions highlighted four urgent priorities for advancing early detection: increased research funding, sustained collaboration across Europe, greater awareness and education, and stronger policy integration. These insights later informed a PANCAID Call-to-Action paper capturing the event’s key messages.

Scientific output continued to grow, with two peer-reviewed publications released this year:

• Differences in the Fecal Metabolome of Autoimmune Pancreatitis Patients (UEG Journal)
• Economic evaluations of early detection strategies for pancreatic cancer: a systematic review (European Journal of Health Economics)

Our visibility and outreach expanded as well. On social media, we completed the PANCAID Partner Spotlight series, introducing the people and institutions driving the project. PANCAID researchers were also active at major scientific conferences throughout the year, including ISMRC, ESMO, and UEG Week, ensuring our work was shared across key communities.

In November, the project reached another cluster milestone: on World Pancreatic Cancer Day, PANCAID hosted the 3rd Annual Prevention & Early Detection (Screening) Cluster Meeting, following directly after our 4th General Assembly Meeting. These back-to-back gatherings reinforced collaboration across Mission Cancer projects and aligned plans for the coming year.

We extend our sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to PANCAID’s progress in 2025. We look forward to continuing this work together as we move into an important year ahead.

Artificial intelligence may be redefining how we diagnose and treat cancer, but how close are we to bringing these innovations into clinical practice?

In this joint webinar, three leading EU-funded projects – PHIRE, PANCAIM, and PANCAID – came together to explore the transformative role of AI in oncology. Moderated by Federica Zanca, EIC Programme Manager for Medical Imaging and AI in Healthcare, the session brought together experts from across Europe to discuss how data, algorithms, and collaboration can drive earlier and more precise cancer diagnosis.

The panel featured:

• John Hermans, Radboud University Medical Center, Co-Coordinator of PANCAIM
• Massimo Alfano, Group Leader at San Raffaele Biomedical Science Park and Coordinator of the PHIRE Project
• Núria Malats, Head of the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Group at CNIO and PANCAID’s Work Package 3 Lead

The discussion explored:

• How AI supports early detection and risk prediction in cancer
• What clinicians can learn from AI that may not be visible to the human eye
• The role of large and diverse datasets and the challenges of building them
• How synthetic data can complement real-world data
• What’s needed to move AI-driven cancer diagnostics from research to the clinic

This exchange highlighted the value of collaboration across disciplines and projects — showing how joint efforts can bring us closer to making precision oncology a European reality.

🎥 Watch the full webinar recording here.

Last week, the PANCAID consortium gathered in Brussels for its 4th General Assembly, bringing together partners, early-career scientists, and advisors for two days of scientific exchange and strategic planning. The meeting opened with a liquid biopsy masterclass by Klaus Pantel and Catherine Alix-Panabières, followed by presentations from our Early Career Scientists highlighting progress across individual research projects. Across the sessions, PANCAID teams shared updates on all work packages, from defining patient cohorts and collecting biomaterial (WP1) to liquid biopsy analyses (WP2) and AI-driven data integration (WP3). Further discussions addressed modeling detection strategies, health economics (WP4), ethical considerations in early surveillance (WP5), communication activities (WP6), and project management (WP7). Impact Board and Scientific Advisory Board feedback provided valuable guidance moving forward.

In parallel, PANCAID hosted the 3rd Annual Prevention & Early Detection Cluster Meeting, strengthening collaboration with fellow EU-funded cancer projects.