Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths, with 1.9 million new cases in 2020 and a projected 3.2 million a year by 2040. Five-year survival reaches 90% at stage I but falls below 15% at advanced stages. Yet current screening is either invasive, like colonoscopy, or less reliable, which keeps participation low.

• Targeting more than 85% specificity for AI-assisted colorectal cancer screening
• Targeting more than 1,200 participants recruited across 8 clinical sites, 40–50% of them women
• Targeting an increase of at least 15% in screening participation within 5 years of project completion
• Discriminative protein biomarker subset planned, backed by network analysis of its biological role

Technical Partner — AI Modelling

DIOPTRA screens a pool of 3,000 candidate proteins in blood samples to find a discriminative subset for early detection. It combines them with risk-factor data and validates the protocol in pilot studies at 8 clinical sites. Our AI models identify the most informative biomarkers and risk factors in an explainable way, moving beyond black-box predictions.