AI: Virtual copies of women with cancer will enable advances in precision medicine

▲ Image generated by Meta AI

Europa Press

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, June 6, 2025, p. 6

Madrid. Spain's National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) is leading a project seeking to develop virtual replicas of women with advanced cancer using artificial intelligence, so-called digital twins. This would allow for personalized treatments and precise prediction of disease progression in the future.

According to the CNIO, a digital twin is a virtual model that seeks to accurately replicate a patient's health status in real time. Unlike traditional medical records, this one integrates multiple layers of information, including: molecular data from the tumor (DNA, proteins, metabolism), real-time body indicators collected with smartwatches (heart rate, sleep, physical activity), emotional and quality-of-life information collected through an app , and conventional clinical data, such as treatments and tests.

The CNIO also points out that these data are constantly updated to allow researchers and physicians to better understand the progression of the disease and the impact of treatment on each patient, predict side effects, and adjust therapies in real time.

The study, which involves nine hospitals across Spain and two universities (the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Carlos III University), plans to include 300 women with metastatic breast, lung, or colon cancer just before starting treatment. Currently, 150 women have been recruited.

The CNIO assures that the initial results, presented at the ESMO Congress, show that high-quality remote monitoring is possible, and that the data obtained is robust enough to train computational models that will allow predicting how patients' illnesses will develop.

The research team is already preparing to present their results at the ASCO 2025 conference, which will take place in Chicago (USA) and represents the world's largest oncology meeting. There, they will discuss how remotely collected data—from daily activity to emotional states—can help predict early treatment responses in metastatic cancer.

Biological age

The CNIO emphasizes that one of the most innovative aspects of this project is that it not only measures what happens in the tumor, but also how the patient's body ages during treatment. Thanks to a new biological clock model, also developed at the CNIO, it is possible to estimate the organism's true biological age from DNA , the center notes.

This molecular clock, they explain, accurately detects whether a patient's body is aging faster than expected, which may be influenced by the type of tumor, the toxicity of treatments, or even emotional factors. With this information, doctors could better assess the impact of treatment and adjust the intensity or combination of therapies according to each person's biological situation.

The CNIO emphasizes that this is the first time this tool has been practically incorporated into a real-life clinical follow-up study. Although this project is still in the development phase and does not have curative purposes for participating patients, the CNIO emphasizes that it does seek to generate tools and knowledge to transform the medicine of the future.

Molecular data

Thanks to the combination of molecular data, remote monitoring, and biological age measurement, the door is open to more precise oncology tailored to each individual , notes the CNIO, which asserts that this is one of the most ambitious personalized medicine initiatives in Spain .

Led by the CNIO and funded with €2.5 million over three years, this public research project, technically known as High-Definition Oncology in Women's Cancer, is a personalized precision medicine project funded by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) with European Union funds (NextGenerationEU/PRTR). It is part of the ISCIII's IMPaCT (Precision Medicine Infrastructure associated with Science and Technology) initiative.

Europa Press

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, June 6, 2025, p. 6

Madrid. Researchers have discovered a remarkable phenomenon among wild chimpanzees in West Africa: the use of stones to produce sounds, presumably as a form of communication.

During a five-year field study, behavioral biologists from Wageningen University and the German Primate Research Center collected video footage at five different locations within a nature reserve in Guinea-Bissau. This was made possible through the use of camera traps and the essential support of local field guides. In specific areas, a striking behavioral pattern was observed: adult male chimpanzees repeatedly banged stones against tree trunks, resulting in characteristic stone piles at the foot of the trees.

Sem van Loon, lead author of the study, published in the journal Biology Letters , refers to this behavior as stone-assisted drumming . It appears to be related to the classic hand- or foot-drumming on hollow buttress roots, which chimpanzees use to transmit information over long distances or to demonstrate dominance .

However, there are clear differences: before throwing stones, the animals tend to emit loud gasps, followed by silence, a pattern opposite to that of traditional drumming, where silence usually precedes the noise.

Cultural transmission

Van Loon suspects there's a different motivation for this behavior. These loud, low-frequency sounds may be intended to spread beyond normal intragroup communication , he suggests. The acoustic properties of a stone hitting a tree make this possible in densely wooded areas .

Observations point to cultural transmission. Young chimpanzees adopt the behavior of older members of the group, indicating that it is socially learned rather than genetically inherited.

Marc Naguib, professor of behavioral ecology, emphasizes the overall importance of the discovery: it illustrates that culture is not unique to humans and that these behaviors should also be considered in nature conservation .