IRTIC’s BreastSCan project will create a database of over one million breast cancer images from nine European countries

The project «Pan-European Breast Image Platform for Advanced AI-based Breast Cancer Screening» (BreastSCan), which is developed by the Institute of Robotics and Information and Communications Technologies (IRTIC), a research centre at the University of Valencia Science Park (PCUV), will enable the development and testing of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tools to make breast cancer screening faster, more accurate and more personalised, ultimately improving patient outcomes across Europe. The initiative is creating one of the largest and most diverse breast cancer image datasets in Europe, with over a million images from nine countries

This huge resource, which includes mammography, ultrasound and MRI scans, contributes directly to the European Cancer Imaging Initiative by making data available through Cancer Image Europe. The project brings together 20 leading EU partners to build the future of cancer screening.

The collected data will be integrated into the Cancer Image Europe platform for use by researchers and innovators, which will strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in AI-driven cancer research. BreastSCan focuses on establishing common guidelines for data quality, creating a secure technical infrastructure and training health professionals to use AI tools effectively. Its long-term objective is to enable earlier detection of cancer, which will lead to better therapeutic results and higher survival rates for patients across Europe.

The Institute of Robotics and Information and Communication Technologies (IRTIC), located in the scientific-academic area of the University of Valencia Science Park (PCUV), is the entity responsible for the ethical and legal management of the project, under the direction of Ricard Martínez, to ensure that patient data is handled with the highest standards of privacy and security.

BreastSCan started on 1 September 2025 and will end on 31 August 2029. The total amount of the grant is 4,572,072.55 euros, of which 3,657,658.05 correspond to EU funding through the EU4Health 2021-2027 programme.

Austria, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Croatia, Sweden, Malta, Greece and Hungary are the home countries of the 20 partners led by the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR). The project is under grant agreement number 101219312.

Source: IRTIC