Multimodal data Integration and AI-based REsearch on environmental exposures in children and Young Adult cancers

MIREYA is a pan-European, multi-omic, multi-exposures and multi-disciplinary project that advances research and delivers a yet unavailable understanding of the impact and causal pathway of multiple environmental exposures on the development and outcomes in rare children (0-14 years) and adolescent and young adults (15-39 years [AYA]) cancers (i.e. embryonal tumours, central nervous system and colorectal cancers). The project will leverage an unparalleled amount of epidemiology datasets from population-based cancer registries from 9 European Countries - collecting data for about 65,000 children and AYA with rare and less studied cancers and more than 500,000 controls – with large pan-European datasets on environmental exposures and socioeconomic position information. These datasets will be integrated with omic data, producing and making available a multisource pan European dataset aligned with the UNCAN and the EHDS platforms. This wealth of data will allow us to identify personalised biological fingerprints of the exposures and define their impact at biological level. Using multilayered research approaches based on reuse, integration and innovative AI-causal-driven analysis of multi-source and multi-disciplinary data (e.g., biological, environmental, social and economic) we will disentangle the combined role of host features and environmental exposures on development and outcomes of cancer in children and AYAs at different stages of life. We will further add to these advances by building the first base of evidence on the potential economic impact of prevention policies aimed at modifiable risks also through social protection measures on cancer inequalities among children and AYAs. This action is part of the Cancer Mission cluster of projects on ‘Understanding (environmental exposure in Children and Adolescent and young adults - CAYAs)