NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – An international trio of European science institutes have begun a cancer research collaboration that will marshal genomics and proteomics research resources in concert with radiotherapy tools and preclinical evaluation technology to develop cancer treatments and reduce treatment side effects.
The centers involved in the effort include the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam, the Institut Gustave Roussy, in Paris, and Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, NKI said on Tuesday.
The collaborators, called the European Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance (ECCCA), plan to start their efforts with an inauguration symposium on Sept. 5, during which the groups will unveil the plans for their first three clinical translational trials. All of the trials will involve combining radiation techniques with translational research.
The ECCCA will use ‘omics and preclinical evaluation tools to “identify promising agents for combined application in early clinical trials,” NKI said.
One program will assess combining radiotherapy for non small cell cancer with sequential radio-chemotherapy, and it will involve molecular studies of tumor tissues.
Another trial will study treating breast cancer tumors, rather than the entire breast, with irradiation and by using genetic analysis on the tumor tissue. A third program aims to find ways to use novel PET and CT imaging techniques to locate tumors that can be reduced to a stage where chemotherapy will be more effective.
NKI said that the three institutes are able to conduct these trials because of the large number of patients and the shared infrastructures they offer.