"Artificial intelligence to improve breast cancer diagnosis in Catalonia’s public hospitals,” reports La Vanguardia

Nov 27, 2025

The eight hospitals of the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) have taken a major step forward in cancer diagnosis thanks to AI algorithms developed by the UPC as part of DigiPatICS, a project awarded the 15th UPC Research Valorisation Prize, promoted by the University’s Social Council with the support of Fractus and the Fractus–UPC Deep Tech Hub.

"Artificial intelligence to improve breast cancer diagnosis in Catalonia’s public hospitals,” reports La Vanguardia — Ferran Marqués, UPC researcher and head of the DigitPatICS project

Until just a few years ago, pathologists manually examined tissue samples under a microscope—a slow process that restricted the number of cells that could be analysed. With the large-scale digitalisation effort launched in 2022 through the DigiPatICS project, this paradigm has shifted. ICS hospitals now operate 24 high-precision scanners that digitise tissue samples, along with AI algorithms trained on these digitalised images to detect, quantify, and classify reactive cells associated with key tumour indicators.