Clinical Data Partner for Virtual Human Twin Models in Rare Head & Neck Cancer — ERN-EURACAN Node & IDEA4RC Data Holder

The ENT and Head and Neck Surgery Research Group at INIBIC / CHUAC-SERGAS (A Coruña, Spain), led by Pablo Parente Arias MD PhD, seeks to join a consortium developing Virtual Human Twin (VHT) or digital twin models for cancer research under HORIZON-MISS-2026-02-CANCER-01. Our role within any consortium would be that of clinical partner and data holder, providing the governed, multimodal clinical data infrastructure that computational and AI-driven VHT modelling teams require for model training, calibration, and multicentre validation.

Our group offers the following specific capabilities directly relevant to VHT development in rare head and neck cancers:

• An operational, pseudonymised, longitudinal clinical cohort of rare head and neck cancer patients, governed under explicit informed consent and GDPR-compliant data sharing instruments, hosted locally at SERGAS under federated analytics architecture (IDEA4RC Capsule).

• OMOP CDM-aligned data infrastructure with capacity for FHIR interoperability, providing the FAIR data foundations required for multiscale VHT model input.

• Multimodal biological data through active participation in HN-OMICS, a multicentre prospective study characterising head and neck squamous cell carcinoma through metabolomics, proteomics, and microbiome profiling in non-invasive matrices (exhaled breath condensate and saliva). This study generates the multiomics data layer necessary for biological grounding of multiscale VHT models.

• Direct clinical expertise in rare head and neck cancer diagnosis, surgical treatment, chemoradiotherapy response monitoring, and recurrence surveillance — spanning the full disease trajectory relevant to VHT-based personalised treatment modelling.

Experience in current and previous European and national projects

• IDEA4RC (Horizon Europe, GA 101057048, active since January 2022): SERGAS participates as a certified data holder within this federated health data ecosystem for rare cancers embedded in ERN-EURACAN. This project has provided our group with hands-on operational experience in federated analytics, GDPR-compliant data sharing agreements, OMOP ETL pipelines, and data capsule deployment — directly reusable infrastructure for VHT model validation.

• IEHDA (EU Framework Programme, ERN-EURACAN, since 2022): health data governance for rare head and neck cancers across European reference centres.

• HN-OMICS (active multicentre observational study, coordinated by Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona): multiomics characterisation of HNSCC through gaseous and liquid biopsy for diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment response monitoring. CHUAC participates as a collaborating centre contributing prospective biological samples and structured clinical data.

• Red TAU (Instituto de Salud Carlos III): genetic basis of congenital hearing loss.

Demonstration site

CHUAC-SERGAS constitutes a functioning demonstration site in the following sense: the IDEA4RC federated data capsule is currently deployed and operational within SERGAS IT infrastructure, processing pseudonymised clinical data locally without data transfer. This architecture is directly reusable as a node within a VHT validation network.

Capacity to engage additional partners

As Chair of the Database Committee of the Head and Neck Cancer International Group (HNCIG, >30 countries), Dr Parente Arias is positioned to facilitate engagement of additional ERN-EURACAN clinical nodes and HNCIG member centres into the consortium, significantly expanding the multicentre validation capacity available to VHT modelling partners.