CONNECT Summer Meeting 2025: Stronger Together for Smarter Cancer Trials

CONNECT Summer Meeting 2025: Stronger Together for Smarter Cancer Trials

Over 70 participants gathered at the CONNECT Summer Meeting to align efforts around precision oncology in Norway. With a shared focus on improving diagnostics, clinical trials, and health data usage, the program featured experts from Norway and abroad, sparking critical dialogue on how national coordination and strategic partnerships can drive real change.

Organized by CONNECT, the cross-sector partnership dedicated to precision cancer medicine, the meeting highlighted how collaboration is key to making innovative treatments available for patients across the country.

From Diagnostics to Actionable Insights

The first session spotlighted progress and opportunities in cancer diagnostics. Joris van der Haar opened with insights from the Netherlands, showing how whole genome sequencing (WGS) is transforming patient care. Diana Bordin shared early learnings from homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) testing, while Emma Rewcastle presented how Helse Vest is moving from research to routine by implementing AI-assisted Ki67 scoring. Mona Elisabeth Revheim concluded the session by detailing the clinical adoption of PET and SPECT tracking for cancer diagnostics in Norway.

These talks made it clear that diagnostic innovation must be paired with scalable infrastructure and clinical integration to realize its full impact.

Strengthening Clinical Trials in Norway

Norway’s position in the global clinical trial landscape was the focus of the second session. Terje Ahlquist examined international trends and outlined how Norway could take a leading role by improving patient recruitment and speeding up study approvals. Åslaug Helland gave a status update on the IMPRESS Norway platform, which provides access to off-label treatments in a trial setting. Katharina Puco introduced MATRIX-RARE, a new initiative targeting rare cancers, while Christoph Müller shared how the academic ProBio study is progressing toward regulatory approval.

Innovative Use of Health Data

The final session turned to health data—how to access it, protect it, and use it to accelerate research. James Peach presented the UK’s strategy for rapid data access in medical research, offering a compelling case for change. Astrid Munk Pedersen followed with Denmark’s journey in building a National Genome Center, while Bjørn Henning Grønberg discussed the clinical use of ctDNA in lung cancer, both for monitoring and research.

Closing the session, a joint presentation from Siri Børø, Steinar Thoresen, and Eimir Hurley shared findings from CONNECT’s Working Group 3. Using lung cancer as a case study, they illustrated how Norway can lead in the generation and secondary use of high-quality health data—if best practices are shared and systems are aligned.

Before the start of the Summer Meeting we were lucky to have Viviam Bermúdez with us from NTNU demonstrating an innovative new tool for stakeholder engagement. We look forward to colaborating with her further and being able to tell you more about this exciting idea later in the year.