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NEC Corporation has developed and successfully demonstrated a technology that enables face recognition without storing patients' facial information and ensures traceability through the entire workflow process for personalized cancer vaccine. Moreover, NEC has developed and successfully demonstrated a new technology that requires minimal validation data to effectively manage sensitive information.
This initiative marks a world-first accomplishment that is aligned with the practical workflow expected for personalized cancer vaccine therapies (*1).
Personalized cancer vaccines are developed by analyzing genomic data on a patient's tissue and blood samples, making accurate administration crucial since each vaccine is tailored to the individual. The workflow for these vaccines is more complex than that of conventional vaccines and is expected to expand as the number of patients increases. Therefore, integrating ICT into the workflow is essential to enhance safety and efficiency, facilitating the realization and widespread adoption of personalized cancer vaccine therapies.
In addition to advancing personalized cancer vaccines through AI, NEC has also developed technologies to enhance vaccine manufacturing management. Furthermore, NEC has been actively involved in comprehensive ICT-based activities to produce personalized cancer vaccine therapies, including the publication of a white paper (*2).
NEC has now developed and demonstrated the following technologies for in-house PoCs.
1. Biometric based digital signature that enables face recognition and ensures traceability without storing facial information (*3)
Since personalized cancer vaccines are developed based on patients' genomic data, they must be administered to the correct patient without any mix-ups, requiring highly reliable identification. In addition to verifying patients’ names and IDs, biometric recognition can further enhance identification reliability when collecting samples or administering vaccines. However, the use of biometric recognition requires the secure management of biometric information.
NEC has developed a proprietary digital signature technology that enables face recognition without storing facial information. This is accomplished by converting the feature information of facial images into key information. This technology enables authentication using key information, enhancing the reliability of vaccine administration without the risk of misuse or leakage of sensitive facial information. In addition, the digital signature generated by this technology can be used to verify and trace the correct patient identification at the time of vaccine administration, without using facial information.
2. Tampering detection technology that reduces the amount of validation data required to securely store sensitive information
Since personalized cancer vaccines are developed based on a patient's genomic data, ensuring the authenticity of the data is important. One solution is to use a tampering detection technology that attaches validation tag data to verify the genomic data. However, a large amount of genomic data and an enormous amount of tag data are required when large amounts of patient data need to be managed. Therefore, conventional tampering detection technologies face difficulties with tag data verification time and storage cost.
NEC has developed a tampering detection technology that reduces the amount of validation tag data by grouping genomic data and assigning validation tags accordingly. This technology reduces the amount of tag data by 90% while maintaining the same level of tamper detection accuracy as the conventional methods of assigning tag data to each genomic data. Consequently, it lowers the storage cost of tag data while ensuring the authenticity of patient genomic data.
To verify the capabilities of these technologies, NEC built an environment that simulates the actual workflow for personalized cancer vaccines. In tests that simulated mix-ups of patients or samples, it was confirmed that the biometric based digital signature technology can correctly detect a mix-up before a vaccine is administered, and that the tampering detection technology can detect if genomic data has been tampered with.
Looking ahead, NEC will continue to approach the production of personalized cancer vaccine therapies from various perspectives, including further research and development based on these results.
(*1)According to an NEC survey as of April 1, 2025
(*2)NEC white paper proposes a comprehensive process workflow for the application of AI-driven personalized cancer vaccines:
(*3)NEC develops biometric based digital signature technology that enables face recognition without storing facial information:
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (nec.com) has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of “Orchestrating a brighter world.” NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential.
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