NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute announced today it has joined Cancer-ID, a European consortium to validate blood-based biomarkers for cancer.
With a total budget of €14.5 million ($15.7 million), Cancer-ID is a newly created consortium funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative. It currently has 33 members from 13 countries tasked with establishing standard protocols for and clinical validation of blood-based biomarkers, such as circulating tumor cells, cell-free tumor DNA, and microRNAs.
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, University of Twente, Netherlands, Bayer Healthcare, and Menarini are coordinating the consortium. The academic leads for Cancer-ID are Klaus Pantel, a professor at UMC Hamburg, Eppendorf, and Leon Terstappen from University of Twente.
"Blood-based analysis of tumor-derived cells and nucleic acids offers a novel concept of liquid biopsies, which allows clinicians to receive real-time information relevant to cancer diagnosis and therapy," Pantel said in a statement. "The Cancer-ID project fills the substantial gap between basic research focused on novel methods for the detection and characterization of circulating tumor cells and nucleic acids, and the development of robust validated assays required to bring the liquid biopsy concept into the clinic."