BreastRecur wins Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Wisconsin’s Third District
Rep. Derrick Van Orden has named Saanvi Muduganti of Onalaska High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Wisconsin’s Third District. Their app BreastRecur helps breast cancer survivors and their care teams monitor recurrence risk through AI-driven analysis of genomic, imaging, and clinical data, providing personalized reports and proactive care recommendations.
When asked what inspired the creation of BreastRecur, Saanvi Muduganti said, “BreastRecur is an AI-powered clinical tool designed to predict breast cancer recurrence with greater accuracy and interpretability.
“Breast cancer remains one of the most prevalent and deadly malignancies worldwide, with over 2 million new cases diagnosed each year. Among the greatest ongoing challenges is recurrence, which affects a significant portion of patients despite advances in early detection and treatment. Approximately 20-30% of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer will experience a recurrence in their lifetime, even after initially successful therapy. In more aggressive subtypes such as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), recurrence rates can reach up to 40%, often occurring within the first 3-5 years. For hormone receptor-positive cancers, the risk persists for up to 20 years. This persistent threat is driven by the biological complexity of breast cancer, which includes diverse molecular subtypes, varying treatment responses, and evolving resistance mechanisms.
“Current predictive models are limited because they rely on single data sources and fail to capture the complex, multifactorial nature of breast cancer. BreastRecur addresses this gap through a multimodal machine learning framework that integrates genomic, imaging (mammography, MRI), histopathological, and clinical data.
“By learning from these data streams simultaneously through a transformer-based architecture, BreastRecur identifies cross-modal patterns that may remain hidden when each modality is analyzed alone. This holistic approach enhances predictive power and supports clinicians in making earlier, more precise treatment and monitoring decisions.
“The idea for BreastRecur grew from recognizing the gap between cutting-edge genomic research and practical, accessible clinical tools. The app aims to bridge research and patient care, bringing the next generation of precision oncology into real-world use.”
The 2025 Congressional App Challenge marked another record-setting year for the program. A total of 394 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives hosted App Challenges in their congressional districts, the highest level of participation in the program’s history. More than 13,800 students from across the country participated, submitting over 4,600 original apps focused on real-world challenges ranging from health and accessibility to education, sustainability, and civic engagement.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives that encourages middle school and high school students to learn to code, explore computer science, and build practical technology solutions for their communities. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and winning teams are invited to showcase their projects to Members of Congress, staff, and industry leaders at the annual #HouseOfCode celebration on Capitol Hill.
The Challenge is proudly bipartisan and reflects a shared commitment to expanding access to STEM education and preparing the next generation of American innovators for the future workforce. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from the Broadcom Foundation, AWS, Infosys Foundation USA, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2026 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.