PROMETHEUS: A new Horizon Europe project on generative AI for improved prostate cancer care
PROMETHEUS (PROstate cancer Multimodal Explainable Transferable Holistic Expert for Universal Stratification) is an EU-project to create generative AI agents that combine different data types (clinical records, MRI, PSMA PET/CT, pathology and long-term outcomes) to improve diagnosis and therapy of clinically significant prostate cancer.
Despite significant advances in the treatment of localised prostate cancer (>95% 5-year survival), metastatic disease remains associated with substantially higher mortality (37% 5-year survival). Organised PSA-based screening can reduce mortality (see PRAISE-U+), however, many more commonly used approaches in the EU lead to many unnecessary biopsies and detection of insignificant tumours. Risk calculators have meaningfully improved clinical decision-making, but they necessarily reduce complex, high-dimensional imaging data to summary scores, leaving clinicians to interpret individual MRI, pathology reports, and clinical history in isolation.
To address these challenges, PROMETHEUS aims to make full use of imaging data and combine it with clinical records to create dynamic, patient-specific disease-trajectory modelling over time.
“With PROMETHEUS, we are taking a new step in precision oncology: Moving beyond isolated findings towards intelligent, multimodal and explainable clinical decision support”, said the consortium lead of the EU-project, Magdalena Görtz, principal investigator at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and consultant urologist at Heidelberg University Hospital.
The EU-project will develop a multimodal AI agent framework, where specialised agents for detection, classification, treatment recommendation and decision reasoning will work together. Participating clinicians will evaluate the decision-support system, whose knowledge-based interface will run with clinician oversight. “We are not developing a black box, but an explainable and transparent AI system that integrates medical knowledge, high-quality data, and long-term prostate cancer outcomes, making them clinically usable,” said Görtz.
The project, which runs from October 2026 to September 2030, closely aligns with the EAU's strategic ambition to steer AI as a driver of innovation in urology, leading to better patient outcomes and more efficiency in clinical practice. PROMETHEUS will be accompanied by an International Scientific Advisory and Stakeholder Board, ensuring that the project is not only technologically innovative, but also clinically relevant, patient-centred and oriented towards medical application. The board includes EAU Secretary General Prof. Arnulf Stenzl and EAU Guidelines Office Chair Prof. Maria José Ribal, alongside representatives from industry and patient organisations. Prof. Monique Roobol, EAU Scientific Coordinator for Prostate Cancer Screening Pilots, participates as a member of the PROMETHEUS consortium, continuing her work to build a knowledge base representing current clinical best practices in prostate cancer care.
For more information:
- Prostate cancer screening: PRAISE-U+
