Cancer Centers Launch Cancer AI Alliance to Discover New Discoveries and Transform Healthcare Using Cancer Data and Applied Artificial Intelligence

SEATTLE – October 2, 2024 – Four National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins – have joined forces and secured funding from AI technology leaders AWS, Deloitte, Microsoft and NVIDIA to create the Cancer AI Alliance (CAIA). The Alliance will apply responsible AI to the collective data power of participating cancer centers to unlock knowledge while protecting data security, all to identify more ways to transform cancer research and care.

Oncology Center named after Fred Hutch, which led the creation of CAIA and provided its initial funding, will serve as the alliance’s coordinating center.

“Collectively, the data held by the nation’s leading cancer centers represents an untapped source of new cancer discoveries that has been out of reach. This alliance helps address key technical challenges that will enable us to safely leverage both artificial intelligence and massive computing power to find these breakthrough insights and save more lives,” said Thomas J. Lynch Jr., CEO, President and Director and owner of Fred Hutch Raisbeck’s Gifted Chair.

The alliance will serve as a hub for collaboration, providing shared infrastructure and shaping industry standards that will not only move researchers from solving problems in isolation to solving them together, but will also support better health outcomes by revealing data trends on rare cancers and small populations that may result in more significant and broader-impacting discoveries.

CAIA is supported by over $40 million in funding and the best and latest artificial intelligence technology and expertise from AWS, Deloitte, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Slalom to enable the coordination and computational capabilities necessary to safely and quickly connect cancer research and data using responsible artificial intelligence

“AWS is proud to support the Cancer AI Alliance and help achieve its critical mission of transforming cancer research and care. Together, we will accelerate innovation in cancer detection and treatment, deploy generative artificial intelligence at scale, and leverage the power, flexibility and security of cloud computing to revolutionize health and patient outcomes,” said Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services.

“Our collaboration with the Cancer AI Alliance underscores Deloitte’s long-standing commitment to supporting the transformation of the life sciences and healthcare industries,” said Jason Girzadas, CEO of Deloitte US. “We are proud to invest our talent, resources and innovative technologies in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and health equity to help advance cancer research, advance treatments and address one of the most pressing health challenges of our time.”

“Thanks to the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, we are at a breakthrough moment in the search for a cure for cancer. With leading artificial intelligence capabilities, diverse data types and standards, and modern cloud infrastructure, thoughtful collaboration among leading cancer research centers can help accelerate progress. The Cancer AI Alliance will be an integral part of this lifesaving work, and we are proud to support it,” said Juan Lavista Ferres, corporate vice president and chief data officer at Microsoft.

“The convergence of artificial intelligence, multimodal healthcare data and federated learning will usher in a new era of cancer research,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “We are delighted to partner with the Cancer AI Alliance to help researchers transform cancer care.”

Currently, cancer researchers face two challenges in using AI modeling: access to computational resources to quickly analyze large amounts of data, and maintaining compliance with regulatory and privacy requirements associated with sharing data from multiple cancer centers.

CAIA will play a key role in providing alliance members with the computing infrastructure to process large amounts of cancer data generated during routine cancer care, such as electronic health records, pathology images, medical images and genome sequencing. This data, combined with artificial intelligence, could lead to new insights into cancer biology, treatment resistance, and the identification of new therapeutic targets.

All of this will be developed while maintaining data security, privacy and compliance with regulatory and ethical standards. Combined with tight governance, CAIA will use a federated AI learning framework in which each cancer center stores its independent data and AI models are pushed to the data to produce results. These results are then aggregated across participating members to generate insights, all without sharing or disclosing any raw data.

While CAIA is launching with four inaugural cancer center members, four founding partners and one supporting partner, additional members are expected to join. A management committee of cancer center representatives will determine membership criteria in the coming months. The alliance’s aspirational goal is to support future cancer innovation with $1 billion in resources.

CAIA is expected to be operational by the end of 2024, with first observations by the end of 2025.

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Media contact:

Krystyna VerHeul
[email protected]
206-667-2210

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is one of the world’s leading centers for cancer research and treatment. Dana-Farber’s mission is to reduce the burden of cancer through research, clinical care, education, community engagement and advocacy. Dana-Farber is a federally designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

We offer the latest cancer treatments for adults through the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center and for children through the Dana-Farber/Boston Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dana-Farber is the only hospital nationwide to rank in the top five US News and World Report Ranking of the best oncology hospital, both in terms of care for adults and children.

As a global leader in oncology, Dana-Farber strives to provide a unique and equitable balance between cancer research and care, translating discoveries into new treatments for patients locally and around the world with more than 1,100 clinical trials.

Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Fred Hutch Cancer Center combines personalized care and advanced research to provide the latest cancer treatment options while accelerating discoveries that prevent, treat and cure cancer and infectious diseases around the world.

Seattle-based Fred Hutch is an independent, nonprofit organization and the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in Washington. We have earned a global reputation for our discoveries in cancer, infectious diseases and basic research, including important advances in bone marrow transplantation, immunotherapy, HIV/AIDS prevention and COVID-19 vaccines. Fred Hutch operates eight clinical care centers that provide medical oncology, infusion, radiation therapy, proton therapy and related services. Fred Hutch also participates in the UW Medicine oncology program.

Johns Hopkins
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
As one of only 57 cancer centers in the nation designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center maintains active programs in clinical research, laboratory testing, education, community outreach, and prevention and control. Kimmel Cancer Center is one of only two comprehensive cancer centers in the state of Maryland.

Whiting School of Engineering
At Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, we advance data- and science-driven engineering discoveries, innovations, and systems applications to help everyone live longer, healthier lives and enable communities and society to thrive even in extreme conditions. With more than 26 research centers and institutes – including the Data Science and AI Institute – and strong community, university and industry partnerships, Hopkins Engineering is driving the future of technology, healthcare and engineering education.

Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center
The residents of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) are united in one mission: to end lifelong cancer. Our specialized care teams provide personalized, compassionate and expert care to patients of all ages. Building on fundamental research conducted at our Sloan Kettering Institute, MSK scientists collaborate to conduct innovative translational and clinical research that is driving a revolution in our understanding of cancer as a disease and improving the ability to prevent, diagnose and treat it. MSK is dedicated to training the next generation of scientists and clinicians who will continue our mission at MSK and around the world. One of the world’s most respected comprehensive cancer-only centers. For over 30 years, we have been recognized as one of the top two cancer hospitals in the country by US News & World Report. www.mskcc.org