Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men across Europe.[1] In 2020, across Europe, approximately 473,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer.[1] There is a clear need for diagnostic and/or prognostic tools that facilitate personalised prostate cancer treatment, so that one day a prostate cancer diagnosis will be less frightening for patients to hear, and less distressing for healthcare professionals to say and act upon.[2]
We are leaders in prostate cancer[3], and are dedicated to helping delay disease progression.[4],[5]
Our heritage in prostate cancer
At Janssen Oncology, we have a legacy of innovation in prostate cancer treatment. We've been actively engaged in prostate cancer care for a decade.[3] From our first approval in 2011, we have continued to build on the insights from our clinical research, leading us to five approved indications in prostate cancer.[4],[5]
Our goal
Building on this heritage, we are striving to ensure we can bring the right treatment, to the right patient, at the right time across the entire prostate cancer journey.
We are exploring innovative approaches, such as using novel intermediate endpoints, which could transform the entire trajectory of cancer, and get one step closer to a cure.[6],[7]
The power of targeted therapy
It is important to recognise that prostate cancer is an evolving disease. [8] Each person and their cancer are unique and, as such, we don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to treatment.[9] We are precisely focused on[10] providing treatment options that delay progression, prolong life and support a better quality of life for our patients. [11]
For patients diagnosed with an advanced form of the disease and for those at high-risk of disease progression, prostate cancer sadly, too often leads to death.[12],[13] This is why we are committed to providing innovative treatment solutions across all disease stages.[4],[5]
Transforming cancer's trajectory
There is no universal approach to cancer treatment, which is why we are committed to understanding the differences in patients’ clinical and non-clinical characteristics and how this can impact the therapeutic benefit of our medicines.[14]
We are pioneering a cutting-edge approach to our scientific methodologies and technologies[15], which enables us to adapt our discovery and development initiatives to drive our next wave of innovation.[4],[5]
We are pushing the boundaries of our understanding of prostate cancer and unlocking innovative ways to tackle it before it progresses. When it comes to treating cancer, it's long been known that catching the disease in its early stages is key for a more successful outcome.[15] The premise behind the new strategy, which aims to halt or prevent cancer, is to understand why some healthy cells turn cancerous, so medications can be developed to interrupt that process – and potentially thwart the disease before it invades the body.[16]
What's more, we have more than 30 years’ experience in oncology, and our commitment to innovation runs deeply within everyone at Janssen Oncology.[17] We put our focus where we can make the most meaningful difference. We’re driven only to deliver the best outcomes to patients, partners, and the oncology community.
Our dedication to improving quality of life
While extending life remains a key focus, patient quality of life is always at the forefront of our minds. For us, helping to give patients more valuable time with their loved ones, to enjoy more of life’s meaningful moments, is what makes our work truly worthwhile.
Our focused approach to research
We have already seen the development of trials that incorporate early intermediate endpoints, such as metastasis-free survival.[4],[5] Metastases are a major cause of symptoms, complications and deaths in prostate cancer, so delaying their onset could lead to both an increase in survival and a delay in progression.[18]
We are also combining clinical data and artificial intelligence (AI) to help analyse prostate cancer patient data collected in electronic health records in several European, Middle Eastern and African countries. This allows us to more accurately understand and describe the epidemiology, diagnosis and management of prostate cancer, as well as help inform our future approaches to research and treatment combinations.[19]
We collaborate to innovate
Our ultimate goal is to change what it means to have, and to treat, cancer. We know that change can only come through collaboration and we invest our time, expertise and resources and partner with experts to unlock the potential around us, all in pursuit of better outcomes for patients and their families.
Working with cross-industry partners, we are bringing to life our commitment to precision medicines. [20] These partnerships include leveraging computational tools and AI to provide real world data-driven understanding to enable superior clinical decision-making and ultimately improve outcomes.
Patterns, correlations and new hypothesis identified through artificial intelligence will be incorporated into clinical trials, making them more efficient, accurate and safe.[21] The use of Big Data is particularly relevant for prostate cancer due to the multiple, interacting biological, epidemiological, clinical, environmental, psychosocial and lifestyle-related variables that exist in a long-term disease course.[19]
The ORACULUM study: harnessing the power of data
Through the ORACULUM study, Janssen is exploring natural language processing artificial intelligence (NLP-AI) to help analyse prostate cancer patient data collected in electronic health records in several European, Middle Eastern and African countries. This allows us to more accurately understand and describe the epidemiology, diagnosis, management and outcomes of patients with prostate cancer along the entire disease pathway in real word practice, as well as to identify potential prognostic and predictive factors of response.[19]
ORACULUM is highly complementary to other big data initiatives running in parallel on prostate cancer (PIONEER Consortium) that are supported by the European Union through the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).[19]
In addition to this, Janssen is also collaborating with nine other pharmaceutical companies from across the industry in the Machine Learning Ledger Orchestration for Drug Discovery (MELLODDY) project, which seeks to solve the challenges of data sharing within pharmaceutical research, while also significantly advancing drug discovery through predictive models.[22]