The Knowledge Connector decision support system for multiomics-based precision oncology

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributed

Contributors

  • Daniel Hübschmann - , University Hospital Heidelberg (Author)
  • Simon Kreutzfeldt - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Benjamin Roth - , German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) (Author)
  • Katrin Glocker - , MGZ - Medical Genetics Center Munich (Author)
  • Janine Schoop - , German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) (Author)
  • Lena Oeser - , German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) (Author)
  • Steffen Hausmann - , German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) (Author)
  • Christian Koch - , German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) (Author)
  • Sebastian Uhrig - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Jennifer Hüllein - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Barbara Hutter - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Martina Fröhlich - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Christoph E Heilig - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Maria-Veronica Teleanu - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Daniel B Lipka - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Irina A Kerle - , National Center for Tumor Diseases Dresden, German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Partner Site Dresden (Author)
  • Annika Baude-Müller - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Katja Beck - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Christoph Heining - , National Center for Tumor Diseases Dresden, German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Partner Site Dresden (Author)
  • Hanno Glimm - , National Center for Tumor Diseases Dresden, German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Partner Site Dresden, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) (Author)
  • Frank Ückert - , University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf (Author)
  • Alexander Knurr - , German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) (Author)
  • Stefan Fröhling - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)
  • Peter Horak - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg (Author)

Abstract

Precision cancer medicine aims to improve patient outcomes by providing individually tailored recommendations for clinical management based on the evaluation of biological disease profiles in multidisciplinary molecular tumor boards (MTBs). The quality of MTB decisions depends on the comprehensive, reliable, and reproducible interpretation of increasingly complex molecular data. We developed and implemented, as part of a multicenter precision oncology program, the Knowledge Connector (KC), a decision support system that integrates individual patients' molecular and clinical data with world knowledge to generate and document MTB recommendations. The KC supports data curation, database integration, and discussion based on multiomics data and provides an interface for creating a cross-institutional knowledge base. Furthermore, it extracts relevant biomarker-drug associations and increases the efficacy of data interpretation in a clinically relevant manner by reducing reliance on external sources and optimizing inter-curator concordance. Our results demonstrate that the KC is a versatile tool that supports medical decision-making in MTBs, thus enabling the scalability of precision cancer medicine.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)742
JournalNature communications
Volume17
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 19 Jan 2026
Peer-reviewedNo

External IDs

PubMedCentral PMC12820158
ORCID /0009-0003-2782-8190/work/203814135

Keywords

Keywords

  • Precision Medicine/methods, Humans, Neoplasms/genetics, Medical Oncology/methods, Decision Support Systems, Clinical, Knowledge Bases, Biomarkers, Tumor/genetics, Multiomics