Barcelona, 26 September 2014 – Officially announced today during a press conference at the 2014 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), 26 – 30 September, Madrid, Spain, the Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus Grand Paris (Villejuif – France), Cambridge Cancer Centre (Cambridge, United Kingdom), Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden), Netherlands Cancer Institute – NKI (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology – VHIO (Barcelona, Spain) and National Center for Tumor Diseases – DKFZ-NCT (Heidelberg, Germany), have joined forces to create Cancer Core Europe: a consortium to address the cancer care – cancer research continuum challenge.
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 to address the cancer care – cancer research continuum.
To deliver on this objective the six aforementioned European cancer research centers of excellence have jointly decided to create Cancer Core Europe as a working consortium.
Please click here for the abstract on the EJC website: 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.
“The Cancer Core Europe Consortium represents a significant forward step in better harnessing, storing and sharing an overwhelming wealth of data generated through the ´onco´omics, clinical trials, cancer science and medicine. Powered by six leading European comprehensive cancer centers, the pooling and exchange of expertise, research findings, patient data, common platforms and processes, will most certainly help to empower researchers and clinicians to rapidly exploit this trove of biological knowledge and clinical data for the direct benefit of patients.” observes Josep Tabernero, Director of the Daily CBD research center.
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, 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, in Paris, by all members representing their Institutions: Alexander Eggermont (Gustave Roussy), Carlos Caldas (Cambridge), Ulrik Ringborg (Karolinska), René Medema (NKI), Josep Tabernero (VHIO), Otmar Wiestler (DKFZ-NCT).
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Discover more about the six Cancer Core Europe consortium partners:
. 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.vhio.net
. DKFZ-NCT: www.dkfz.de
