This project is one of the most notable initiatives in Precision Nutrition that has been launched in Europe, with more than €4 million in funding and a consortium that includes six research centres recognised for their expertise in the field of cancer and nutrition applied to improving metabolic health and immunity.
The project has reached its first milestone with the start of clinical studies and the design of the digital platform for daily monitoring and care.
After its first year of work, the Mentoring for Health project is already redefining cancer care in Europe through the integration of nutrition into precision medicine. With €4 million in funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC), it is beginning to develop a clinical platform to transform the monitoring and treatment of patients with advanced lung cancer with a view to improving their quality of life and response to clinical treatments.
Every year, more than 2.2 million people are diagnosed with lung cancer, one of the most common types of cancer and the one with the highest mortality rate worldwide. Up to 80% of cancer patients suffer from malnutrition, which weakens the body, slows down recovery and reduces tolerance to treatment. Despite its impact, nutrition has rarely been personalised throughout treatment until now. That is why Mentoring for Health’s digital model is designed to predict individual nutritional needs and offer personalised recommendations to improve metabolic health, among other things.
This project, part of Horizon Europe’s Pathfinder Challenge, embodies the next generation of nutrition science with a pioneering approach that combines clinical research, multi-omic technologies and digital health innovation to transform the future of cancer care.
It will also serve as a model for other types of cancer and chronic diseases, as well as being able to be extended to vulnerable populations, such as the elderly or people with metabolic disorders. The results will also help to reduce healthcare costs and shorten hospital stays, although the main objective is to reduce nutritional deficiencies by up to 40%. Lung cancer patients often suffer from complications such as muscle loss (sarcopenia), cachexia and malnutrition, all of which can weaken their response to treatment and recovery.
First clinical studies in patients
The European consortium has the first data on the patient’s condition—from routine clinical data to molecular-level samples—which have already been analysed and discussed by the research groups at the general assembly held at the University of Parma (Italy), one of the project partners, together with two German entities, the largest Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and the prestigious Max Planck organisation; the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S) in Porto (Portugal), and the Infanta Sofía University Hospital (Madrid); all under the scientific coordination of IMDEA Nutrition.
The clinical study will reach more than 150 lung cancer patients, enabling the construction of a database model based on nutritional markers, microbiome profiles and lifestyle patterns, following a human-centred approach to research:
- Analysis of patient characteristics ranging from their microbiota, nutrigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and glycomics to inflammatory status, cancer treatments and anthropometry in a follow-up over time, among many other issues.
- Integration of all this data into a mathematical model that combines approaches as diverse as AI and differential equations describing processes such as haemoglobin dynamics that would correlate with the patient’s quality of life.
- Daily monitoring of the patient’s routines, recording their status and any changes in real time, which will provide the oncologist with detailed and useful information that is constantly updated to facilitate early medical intervention and the issuance of recommendations.
