PreciseOnco Consortium Secures €14.9 Million EU Grant to Advance AI-Powered Precision Cancer Treatment
Key Insights
The Philips-coordinated PreciseOnco consortium has been awarded €14.9 million in EU funding to develop integrated spectral imaging, robotic guidance, and AI technologies for minimally invasive cancer treatment.
The five-year research program will conduct five clinical studies across multiple cancer types to validate spectral imaging and robotic guidance systems with sub-millimeter precision.
The initiative addresses the growing cancer burden, with projections of over 35 million new cases globally by 2050, representing a 77% increase from 2022.
The Philips-coordinated PreciseOnco consortium has secured €14.9 million in funding from the EU's Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) to revolutionize precision cancer treatment through the integration of advanced medical imaging, robotic assistance, and artificial intelligence. The five-year research program, with a total budget of €23.9 million including industry contributions, aims to set new benchmarks for precision, safety, and efficiency in minimally invasive cancer care.
"Smart imaging and robotic precision are opening new possibilities for minimally invasive cancer treatment," said Bert van Meurs, Chief Business Leader for Image Guided Therapy at Royal Philips. "By combining spectral imaging, AI-powered software and robotic guidance, we're developing new solutions to help physicians treat cancer with greater precision, confidence and speed."
Addressing the Growing Cancer Challenge
Cancer remains a leading health challenge, with approximately 2.7 million new diagnoses in Europe each year. Global projections suggest over 35 million new cancer cases by 2050, representing a 77% increase from 2022. In response to this growing burden, interventional oncology has emerged as a rapidly evolving discipline that integrates medical imaging, oncology, and minimally invasive treatment approaches.
These treatments—including targeted ablation, radioembolization, and electrochemotherapy—offer significant advantages over traditional surgery, such as shorter recovery times and fewer side effects. However, their effectiveness strongly depends on the performance of medical imaging and the precision with which physicians can guide instruments to tumors.
Advanced Technology Integration
Central to the PreciseOnco research program is spectral imaging, an advanced form of CT and cone-beam CT that captures significantly richer information about tissue composition than conventional imaging. By analyzing X-rays at different energy levels, spectral imaging enables physicians to differentiate between tumors, vasculature, and healthy tissue with greater clarity.
The consortium will integrate robotic guidance systems that use real-time imaging data to guide interventional instruments with sub-millimeter precision. The program will also advance electrochemotherapy, a minimally invasive technique that combines locally administered electrical pulses with chemotherapy to selectively treat cancer tissue while preserving surrounding healthy tissue.
All technologies will be powered by AI algorithms designed to enhance image quality, reduce radiation dose, streamline advanced visualization software, and provide real-time intra-procedural feedback on treatment success. This would allow physicians to confirm that tumors have been fully treated before the patient leaves the operating room.
Comprehensive Clinical Validation
PreciseOnco will conduct five clinical studies spanning multiple cancer types and interventional workflows:
VISTA (Virtual Spectral Imaging for Superior Thermal Ablation Guidance): Evaluating spectral imaging to improve liver and kidney ablation procedures and liver radioembolization.
SPOT ON (Spectral angiography-computed tomography to Optimize percutaneous Tumor ablation): Assessing spectral CT for better tumor targeting and treatment planning.
HORA EST HCC 2: Combining thermal ablation with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in a single session for improved hepatocellular carcinoma treatment.
SPECTRA-L (Spectral Performance Evaluation of a CT-Equipped Therapeutic Radiology Angio Suite in Liver): Testing spectral imaging for transarterial chemoembolization procedures.
LASER (Locoregional therApies Spectral Evaluation of Responses): Developing imaging biomarkers to predict treatment success across multiple cancer types and interventional techniques.
European Collaboration Network
The PreciseOnco public-private partnership unites experts from industry, research organizations, medical societies, and leading European hospitals. Industry partners include Philips, Quantum Surgical, and IGEA (search), while academic partners encompass University Hospital Cologne (search), University Medical Center Utrecht, Leiden University Medical Center (search), and major French hospital networks including Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris and Hospices Civils de Lyon.
The European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (search) (EIBIR) and the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) provide additional research and clinical expertise to the consortium.
Technology Portfolio and Innovation
Philips brings over 40 years of experience in public-private partnerships to the consortium, complementing its global R&D programs with innovations like the Verida detector-based spectral CT fully powered by AI and the Azurion image-guided therapy system. The company's broad imaging, image-guided therapy, and healthcare informatics portfolio supports clinicians in visualizing, assessing, guiding treatment, and confirming outcomes.
The project is structured into multiple work packages covering spectral imaging technology development, AI-based image processing, robotic guidance integration, multi-center clinical validation, and health economic assessment. Together, these studies will generate evidence to support the adoption of spectral imaging and robotic guidance across European cancer centers, extending access to advanced minimally invasive treatments to a larger patient population.