The Worldwide Innovative Networking (WIN) Consortium in personalized cancer medicine was initiated in 2010 with leadership from leading cancer centers worldwide. WIN is a non-profit, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris.

WIN was created to accelerate the pace and reduce the cost of translating novel cancer treatments to the bedside by developing and applying, through worldwide clinical trials and research projects, the most promising advances in genomic-based cancer research. WIN aims to initiate research projects each year in a global consortium guided by an independent scientific advisory board.

WIN now includes 27 institutional members. These stakeholders have come together from all parts of the world to address the challenge of increasing the efficacy of cancer diagnostics and therapeutics by understanding the genetics and biology of each individual’s tumor and accounting for genetic differences across diverse populations—from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Australia.

Our goal is to significantly improve outcomes for patients around the globe. We aim to increase the number of patients worldwide that have access to innovative, global clinical trials in the area of genomic-based cancer therapeutics. Global diversity and inclusion of all stakeholders is WIN’s most important and differentiating asset.

WIN enables cross-sector collaborations designed to accelerate the speed and efficacy with which breakthroughs in personalized cancer medicine can be realized and brought to patients worldwide.

Our members include leading academic, life science, not-for-profit, health, patient advocacy and IT organizations.

The response to a genetically-targeted therapy can vary due to differences in ethnicity and environment. WIN's global studies are designed to identify and account for this variability, enhancing the speed and efficacy with which novel discoveries can be made and brought to patients around the world.

WIN Symposia, held annually, brings together hundreds of leaders representing all stakeholders from around the world in a forum designed to promote the exchange of ideas and information.

WIN's article “Digital Display Precision Predictor: the prototype of a global biomarker model to guide treatments with targeted therapy and predict progression-free survival” published by NPJ Precision Oncology, a Nature Research journal.

The WIN SPRING trial was conducted in the USA, France, Spain, Luxembourg and Israel in the following cancer centers: University of California - San Diego's Moores Cancer Center, Avera Cancer Center (Sioux Falls, Arizona), Institut Curie (Paris), Centre Léon Bérard (Lyon), Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (Barcelona), Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (Luxembourg), and Chaim Sheba Medical Center (Israel).

The trial was sponsored by the WIN Consortium and funded by ARC Fondation for cancer research (France). The drugs were donated by Pfizer Inc.

Published in Nature Medicine, results of WINTHER, the first study pioneered by the WIN Consortium.

Genomic and transcriptomic profiling expands precision cancer medicine: the WINTHER trial - shows that RNA profiling together with DNA testing matches more patients with advanced cancer to personalized therapies than DNA profiling for tumor mutations alone.

European funded trials WINTHER EU FP7 funded and CHEMORES EU FP6 funded established foundations for WIN future global strategy for lung cancer currently under development.

The concept underlying the new strategy is developed in the following publications:

May 23, 2024
Journal of Immunotherapy and Precision Oncology
https://doi.org/10.36401/JIPO-24-X2

The WIN Symposium 2024, a landmark event in precision oncology, took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on the 1st and 2nd of March 2024; marking a significant collaboration between the Worldwide Innovative Network (WIN) Consortium and Burjeel Holdings. This annual global congress of the WIN Consortium brought together physicians, researchers, and scientists from 30 countries to explore the latest advancements in precision oncology, with the ultimate goal of improving cancer patient care and outcomes worldwide.

The call for abstracts attracted 51 submissions with 42 accepted as posters and 3 as oral presentations. This publication features 34 of the accepted abstracts.

The WIN Consortium, a non-profit association headquartered in France, unites 31 world-class academic medical centers, healthcare industries, research organizations, and patient advocacy groups from 18 countries, aligned to launch cancer trials using omic platforms to bolster precision oncology across the world. BMC — Burjeel Medical City, the flagship facility of Burjeel Holdings, is the first member from the UAE and Gulf Cooperation Council countries to join the WIN Consortium.
Abu Dhabi was selected as the city to host this year’s congress, marking its inaugural occurrence outside of its traditional place in Europe.

The congress featured a meticulously curated program, including interactive elements that illustrate the principles and best practices of precision cancer treatment including dedicated sessions for precision genomics, precision immunotherapy, precision radiotherapy, precision communityomics, a molecular tumor board, and a precision diagnostics panel. Under the theme ‘Precision and Molecular Oncology: Caring for Patients and Future Generations,’ the congress kicked off with a grand opening featuring 2018 Nobel Laureate, Prof. James Allison, Regental Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center (USA), whose groundbreaking work has revolutionized cancer immunotherapy. He was then joined by leading key opinion leaders and innovators from prestigious institutions such as MD Anderson Cancer Center, Brown University, Weill Cornell Medicine, Mount Sinai, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, UC San Diego, University of Calgary, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Sarah Cannon Research Institute and renowned leaders of major precision diagnostic companies such as Guardant Health, Tempus AI, and OncoHelix. Additionally, the platform empowered local physicians and scientists to showcase the UAE's vision and plans for genomic medicine and precision oncology.

Conference Co-Chairs were Drs Wafik El-Deiry (Chair of WIN Consortium; American Cancer Society Research Professor; Director of Legorreta Cancer Center; Associate Dean of Oncologic Sciences, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, RI, USA), Razelle Kurzrock (Chief Medical Officer & Equal Opportunities and Diversity Officer of WIN Consortium; Professor of Medicine, Associate Director of Clinical Research, Chair of Precision Oncology, MCW Cancer Center and Linda T. and John A. Mellowes Center for Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine; Founding Director of Michels Rare Cancers Research Laboratories, Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin, WI, USA), Humaid Al-Shamsi (Director of Oncology Services, Burjeel Holdings; Professor, Gulf Medical University; President, Emirates Oncology Society, Abu Dhabi, UAE), and Khaled Musallam (Group Chief Research Officer, Burjeel Holdings; Adj. Professor, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE).

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Abu Dhabi's WIN Symposium gathers oncology leaders
Gulf Today Newspaper
Magzter
March 02, 2024

ABU DHABI: The WIN Symposium 2024, a landmark event in precision oncology, has officially commenced in Abu Dhabi, marking a significant collaboration between the Worldwide Innovative Network (WIN) Consortium and Burjeel Holdings.

This two-day annual global congress of the WIN Consortium brings together over 500 physicians, researchers, and scientists in the field from 30 countries to explore the latest advancements in precision oncology, with the ultimate goal of improving cancer patient care and outcomes worldwide.

Under the theme “Precision and Molecular Oncology: Caring for Patients and Future Generations”, the congress kicked off with a grand opening featuring 2018 Nobel Laureate, Prof. James Allison, Regental Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center (USA), whose groundbreaking work has revolutionised cancer immunotherapy.

In his keynote lecture, Prof. Allison presented the latest research on how immunotherapy works and the way in which treatments can be improved, tailored and combined so that they are more effective and safe to give to patients with various types of cancer.

On the sidelines of the event, Prof. Allison said, “We are excited to be here and hear about what is happening in the UAE. We are impressed by the infrastructure being built for the development of patient care and cancer treatment, particularly in precision oncology, genomic medicine, and immunotherapy. The future is already here in terms of collaboration with various groups, including this planning infrastructure and building medical systems in Abu Dhabi, especially in clinical trials and the testing of new drugs.”

The WIN Consortium, a non-profit association headquartered in France, unites 31 world-class academic medical centres, healthcare industries, research organisations, and patient advocacy groups from 18 countries, aligned to launch cancer trials using omic platforms to bolster precision oncology across the world.

BMC - Burjeel Medical City, the flagship facility of Burjeel Holdings is the first and only member from the UAE and GCC.

Abu Dhabi was selected as the city to host this year's congress, marking its inaugural occurrence outside of its traditional European venue. This decision reflects the international scientific community's trust in the UAE's vision and capabilities in advancing precision oncology.

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WIN Consortium chair aims to promote collaboration, innovation in personalized cancer medicine
Healio | HemOnc Today
January 22, 2024

Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, has been elected chair of the Worldwide Innovative Networking (WIN) in Personalized Cancer Medicine Association — WIN Consortium

El-Deiry — director of Legorreta Cancer Center and associate dean of oncologic sciences at Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University — began his term as WIN Consortium chair in December.

The France-based non-profit association’s member organizations include 28 academic medical centers, industry groups, research organizations and patient advocates from 19 countries on five continents.

The collaborative organization aims to extend survival and improve quality of life for people with cancer through use of genetically and epigenetically informed health care and accelerating the discovery and development of personalized cancer therapies.

“The WIN Consortium isn’t about recruiting a new chair who talks about all their great ideas. This isn’t about me,” El-Deiry, who serves as associate editor for molecular oncology for Healio | HemOnc Today, said in an interview. “This is about growing the global membership, bringing in pharmaceutical companies and bringing people together. It’s about being inclusive, working with the best minds and a broad range of stakeholders in precision oncology.”

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The Cancer Letter, Issue 45, Volume 49, December 8, 2023
Guest Editorial, Wafik S. El-Deiry

From the time of its inception, the Worldwide Innovative Network (WIN) Consortium in precision cancer medicine has had a bold mission to significantly improve survival of patients with cancer across the world through international collaboration.

It is indeed a great honor and a career highlight for me to be elected this month as the Chair of WIN.

WIN was founded in 2010 in France as a unique first-of-its-kind non-profit non-governmental organization by the late Dr. John Mendelsohn, past president of MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, chairman of WIN until his death and Prof. Thomas Tursz, general director at Gustave Roussy, France. WIN's strategy has been to perform proof-of-concept cancer clinical trials designed to explore novel strategies and tools to increase efficacy of precision oncology therapeutics and improve early diagnosis.

The impact of WIN has been global and has involved the conduct of signature clinical trials that have employed novel AI algorithms. The WINTHER trial on genomic and transcriptomic profiling to expand precision cancer medicine was published in Nature Medicine in 2019.

While this trial did not meet its primary endpoint of seeing that 50% of enrolled patients who had their therapy directed by tumor transcriptomics would achieve a 1.5x prolongation of their progression-free survival (PFS) as compared to their last prior regimen’s PFS, this was clearly a very ambitious and high bar to achieve.

The 107 patients who were ultimately treated according to recommendations by a committee from five countries showed improved outcomes for those with a high matching score across tumor types such as colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, and lung cancer. The trial did demonstrate that 25% of treated patients had a progression-free survival 2 (PFS2) to PFS1 ratio of >1.3 which is impressive considering that the patients were heavily pretreated.

WIN has contributed to algorithms based on patient tumor profiling to predict drug combinations that may be efficacious.

The Simplified Interventional Mapping System (SIMS) uses knowledge about existing drugs and their impact on hallmarks of cancer and based on genomic DNA sequencing, copy number variation, transcriptomics and micro-RNA reports the activation status of 24 nodes that are ranked for each patient and their tumor.

The SIMS algorithm was applied in WIN’s SPRING trial that tested the combination of and anti-PD-L1, a VEGF receptor inhibitor and a CDK4/6 inhibitor in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who did not have alterations in EGFR, ROS, ALK or MET.

The combination of avelumab, axitinib, and palbociclib demonstrated 53% clinical benefit including stable disease for greater than 24 weeks or partial responses including in patients who had previously received anti-PD1 therapy.

Other advances include the Digital Display Precision Predictor (DDPP) as a prototype of a global biomarker model to guide treatments with targeted therapy and prediction of progression free survival.

This includes predictions of post-surgery recurrence in patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer who may benefit from adjuvant therapies. Important concepts in the field have emerged from the leaders and collaborators in the WIN Consortium.

Part of the future in precision oncology will involve N-of-1 clinical trials given the complexity and heterogeneity of specific cancers. Another trial that has supported these concepts in addition to WINTHER and SPRING was the I-PREDICT study led by Dr. Kurzrock and that was also published in Nature Medicine.

I-PREDICT stands for Investigation of Profile Related Evidence Determining Individualized Cancer Therapy and in this trial patients who enrolled were classified as either having a high matching score or a low matching score depending on the presence of drivers and available drugs.

The trial showed that in a cohort of 149 patients with GI malignancies, GYN cancers, breast cancer and central nervous system cancer, patients with a higher matching score had significantly better survival as compared to patients with a lower matching score.

Dr. Kurzrock has been incredibly influential in the world of phase 1 trials and precision oncology in general.

Her leadership, innovation and continued role as the chief medical officer for the WIN Consortium is a major strength and will help shape the future based on many of her extremely well-conceived, rational and great clinical trial ideas.

It is very inspiring to work with someone who describes their commitment to a cause as a “labor of love,” or to hear others describe her as the “sunshine” of the WIN Consortium organization.

I was honored to be considered for the role of chair of the WIN Consortium because I am interested in working with like-minded colleagues on an international scope to promote innovation and impact that can help patients.

I also thought this would be an opportunity to honor John Mendelsohn’s leadership and vision in founding the WIN Consortium.

Dr. Mendelsohn was a transformational figure in the field of oncology through his leadership throughout the years in translational therapeutics research and as president of MD Anderson Cancer Center. Drs. Mendelsohn and Tursz recognized and understood that working together on a global scale provides a unique strength to fight cancer.

After their involvement with the WIN Consortium, Drs. Richard Schilsky and Josep Tabernero are passing the baton to a new team after many years of inspired and superb leadership.

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