DIGICORE's Connect to Win 2025 brought together clinicians, researchers, data scientists and technologists in Brussels for two intensive days of collaboration on RWE and cancer care innovation. Despite national strikes, the event generated valuable discussions and strengthened partnerships across European cancer centers.

The two-day program featured six comprehensive sessions exploring RWE in precision oncology. The event opened with foundational discussions on bridging clinical trials and real-world practice with presentations from Prof. Julie Josse (Inra) on causal inference approaches, Prof. Asieh Golozar (Nemesis Health) on data curation, Prof. Richard Bulbulia (University of Oxford) on integrating randomisation in RWE, and Dr. Susan Evans Axelsson (EAU UroEvidenceHub) showcasing the EAU UroEvidenceHub.

Session 3 focused on collaborative research development, where Dr. Alberto Traverso introduced DIGICORE’s Working Groups, followed by presentations from the lung, breast, and RWE/Tech co-chairs on their ongoing research. The second day highlighted concrete RWE applications across cancer types, featuring the DINASTY Lung Study (presented by Dr. Åsa Öjlert from Oslo University Hospital), radiomics for personalised radiotherapy (presented by Dr. Luca Boldrini from Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS), AI validation challenges (presented by Prof. Dirk De Ruysscher from Maastricht University), breast cancer RWE (presented by Dr. Cédric van Marcke from Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc) and AI-driven risk stratification in hematological conditions (presented by Prof. Matteo Giovanni Della Porta from Humanitas University).

The Dragon's Den session – now in its second year - saw DIGICORE Working Groups pitch protocols to editors Nature Communications (Dr. Kathryn McGinnis), Nature Health (Dr. Lorenzo Righetto), and ESMO Real World Data and Digital Oncology (Dr. Rodrigo Dienstmann), addressing three key research questions: AI in multidisciplinary tumor boards, chemo-immunotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer (the CONNECTION study), and treatment pathways for oligo-progressive metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

The event concluded with presentations on tools and platforms advancing RWE generation, including IQVIA’s next-generation EHR systems (presented by Dr. Ernest Sarrias), the San Raffaele AI Center (presented by Prof. Carlo Tacchetti), and NLP applications in Lithuanian clinical settings (presented by Dr. Mindaugas Morkunas from Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos).

Special thanks to all speakers, journal editors, poster presenters, and participants, as well as event sponsors Thermo Fisher Scientific and IQVIA.