Multi-Omics Data Fusion Engine: Data Fusion and Multi-Modal Analysis Enhancing CRC Prevention in Europe

The ONCODIR project is dedicated to advancing Colorectal Cancer (CRC) prevention through evidence-based decision-making that supports both healthcare professionals, policymakers and citizens. By providing individuals with personalized recommendations and empowering policymakers with actionable insights, ONCODIR aims to drive impactful CRC prevention strategies across Europe.

DATA FUSION TOOL: ADDRESSING THE COMPLEXITY OF CRC

CRC is a complex, multidimensional disease influenced by a range of risk factors including lifestyle, nutrition, comorbidities, environmental influences, and socioeconomic factors. Addressing this complexity requires a comprehensive, multimodal analysis that accounts for diverse datasets and analytical perspectives. By integrating diverse datasets, including retrospective data at the country level and prospective data at the individual level, ONCODIR offers a unified, data-driven approach that not only supports the reduction of individual cancer risks but also enables the development of more effective, evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies. ONCODIR achieved this through the advanced Multi-Omics Data Fusion Engine (Data Fusion Tool), an innovative tool designed to merge and analyse various types of datasets. By providing enriched information of greater quality, the Data Fusion Tool offers three core capabilities-data fusion, subgroup analysis and omics analysis-designed to generate actionable insights for CRC prevention (Figure).

DATA FUSION

The Data Fusion Tool integrates large-scale, heterogeneous datasets from multiple sources, to prepare them for comprehensive analysis. This includes both retrospective at the country level data, primarily open-sourced, such as CRC incidence, risk factors, and cost-related data, and prospective at the individual level data, collected through the ONCODIR project. This approach promotes the accessibility and reuse of these curated datasets to be analyzed within the Data Fusion Tool itself or forwarded to other ONCODIR’s tools for further exploration. This comprehensive data fusion provides a deep, holistic understanding of CRC’s causes and risk factors. By standardizing and preparing these diverse datasets for analysis, the tool derives insights that support both personalized recommendations and impactful policy decisions.

SUBGROUP ANALYSIS

The Data Fusion Tool not only facilitates data fusion but also supports in-depth statistical and predictive analyses of diverse datasets. By conducting subgroup analysis at the country level across various population sub-groups, such as age and sex, in European countries, the tool aims to identify high-risk populations and uncover patterns, trends, and associations among risk factors and CRC incidence. This analysis is crucial in shaping future prevention strategies, particularly as CRC incidence varies significantly across age groups (e.g., <24 yo, 24-50 yo, >50 yo) and between sexes. Subgroup analysis facilitates the development of targeted, age- and gender-sensitive prevention strategies, tailored to specific population needs. These insights enable healthcare professionals and policymakers to drive informed decisions that improve public health outcomes and reduce the overall incidence of CRC across Europe.

OMICS ANALYSIS

In addition to this epidemiological subgroup analysis, ONCODIR leverages multi-omics data, such as genomics and metabolomics, to deepen the understanding of CRC at the molecular level. By exploring patient-level omics data, through statistical and predictive analysis, the tool uncovers potential biomarkers linked to CRC. Specifically, focuses on microbiome data, exploring the relationship between microbiome composition and CRC development. This multi-omics approach provides a more comprehensive view of the biological processes driving CRC, opening new avenues for personalized prevention strategies and advancing clinical understanding of the disease.

In conclusion, the ONCODIR project is pioneering data-driven CRC prevention, leveraging both country-level and individual-level data to identify high-risk groups, uncover biomarkers, and enhance prevention strategies. With its advanced data fusion and analytical capabilities, ONCODIR provides healthcare professionals and policymakers with the necessary insights to reduce CRC incidence, advancing Europe toward a future with improved public health outcomes and stronger CRC prevention initiatives.