Development of Molecular Digital Twins Based on Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometry Imaging for Application in Cancer Surgery

Summary Cancer surgery is a fundamental component of oncology treatment, its quality significantly impacts patient outcomes, influencing both relapse rates and survival. However, achieving this customization is contingent upon early collection of robust molecular data during surgery, providing accurate information for diagnosis, prognosis, and delineating surgical margins. The introduction of digital twin (DT) technology has recently opened a new era of precision and effectiveness in cancer surgery. Expanding from its successful implementations in the industrial sector, DT concept has evolved into a highly promising breakthrough in healthcare. Therefore, our study goal is on creating DT by using accurate and high-throughput molecular data obtained through mass spectrometry imaging. We developed a machine-learning-based pipeline that allow to depict infiltration of cancer cells into normal tissue that offer precise delineation of tumor margins thanks to SpiderMass. This process also enables the prediction of relative presence of bacterial strains in tumoral and healthy mammary glands.