Cancer Core Europe: a consortium to address the cancer care – cancer research continuum challenge
Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus Grand Paris (Villejuif – France), Cambridge Cancer Centre (Cambridge, United Kingdom), Karolinska Institutet – KI (Stockholm, Sweden), Netherlands Cancer Institute – NKI (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology – VHIO (Barcelona, Spain) and the German Cancer Research Center – DKFZ and its National Center for Tumor Diseases – NCT (Heidelberg, Germany) announce the creation of Cancer Core Europe: a consortium to address the cancer care – cancer research continuum challenge.
© NASA GSFC, Wikimedia Commons
The optimal treatment of cancer remains one of the major medical challenges globally due to the high diversity in the spectrum of mutations in individual cancer patients. To tackle this issue, cancer programmes must be better integrated and performed at a large scale. European cancer research is therefore in need of a transformative initiative whereby a consortium of comprehensive cancer centers of excellence will work collectively in order to carry out joint translational and clinical research in cancer treatment and care.
To deliver on this objective, Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus Grand Paris (Villejuif – France), Cambridge Cancer Centre (Cambridge, United Kingdom), Karolinska Institutet – KI (Stockholm, Sweden), Netherlands Cancer Institute – NKI (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology – VHIO (Barcelona, Spain) and the German Cancer Research Center – DKFZ and its National Center for Tumor Diseases – NCT (Heidelberg, Germany) have jointly decided to create Cancer Core Europe.
As a working consortium, Cancer Core Europe will be a great translational platform to make the bridge "bench-to-bedside and bedside-to-bench" also for conducting next-generation clinical trials focused on proof-of-concept, companion predictive and resistance monitoring biomarkers.
Abstract on http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2014.07.025
The creation of a virtual single “e-hospital”
The prerequisites for joint translational and clinical research programs are very demanding. These require a powerful translational platform that integrates all patient files using a common software platform that federates the databases from each of the centers; inter-compatible clinical molecular profiling laboratories with a robust underlying computational biology pipeline; standardized functional and molecular imaging; commonly agreed SOPs for liquid and tissue biopsy procurement, storage and processing, for molecular diagnostics, “omics”, functional genetics, immune-monitoring; a culture of data collection and storage that facilitates complete longitudinal data sets.
A critical mass of activity for the successful integration of all cancer care information, clinical research and outcome research
Given the excellent track records of the six participants in these areas, Cancer Core Europe will be able to support the full spectrum of research required to address the cancer research – cancer care continuum. Cancer Core Europe also constitutes a unique environment for the training of up-and-coming talents in innovative translational and clinical oncology.
Yearly within the Cancer Core Europe consortium around 60.000 newly diagnosed cancer patients are seen, 300.000 cancer treatments are delivered and about 1.000.000 outpatient visits are performed. More than 1.500 clinical trials are being conducted at these six cancer centers annually. Together with the strengths in basic and translational cancer research, this represents a unique critical mass of activity that once successfully harmonized as one operational clinical research structure will represent and harness a major force in European cancer research.
The consortium agreement of Cancer Core Europe was signed in July 2014, in Paris, by Alexander Eggermont (Gustave Roussy), Carlos Caldas (Cambridge Cancer Centre), Ulrik Ringborg (Karolinska Institutet), René Medema (Netherlands Cancer Institute), Josep Tabernero (Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology), Otmar Wiestler (DKFZ-NCT).
To learn more about the six institutions:
Gustave Roussy: www.gustaveroussy.fr
Cambridge Cancer Centre: www.cambridgecancercentre.org.uk
Karolinska Institutet: www.ki.se
Netherlands Cancer Institute: www.nki.nl
Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology: www.vhebron.net
DKFZ-NCT: www.dkfz.de
With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is Germany’s largest biomedical research institute. DKFZ scientists identify cancer risk factors, investigate how cancer progresses and develop new cancer prevention strategies. They are also developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully. The DKFZ's Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to questions relating to cancer.
To transfer promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improve the prognosis of cancer patients, the DKFZ cooperates with excellent research institutions and university hospitals throughout Germany:
The DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
