In conversation with... ITCC-P4

About the ITCC-P4 project

Cancer is still the leading cause of death by disease seen in children in Europe. Yet childhood cancers are relatively rare and are different in nature to most cancers found in adults, presenting particular challenges to cancer researchers.

The ITCC-P4 project has delivered a system composed of tools that can help researchers from both the public and private sector to identify promising molecules that could form the basis of new drugs to treat childhood cancer. This will help researchers to prioritise which drug candidates to test in children and accelerate the time it takes for those medicines to reach the clinic.

The toolkit includes validated models, a unique database outlining comprehensive molecular data about childhood cancers, an international consensus on the preclinical data needed to support paediatric drug development, and a new methodology to define the relevance of certain drug targets based on literature analysis. One of the key results was the development of PDX models of many childhood cancers, from the more common forms of cancer to relapses and rare cancers. PDX models are made from a combination of patient-derived tumour tissue and mouse models, and they have proven to be an effective way of studying cancer in adults but are not yet widely used in childhood cancer research.

ITCC-P4 has set up a new non-profit organisation which will continue to provide these vital tools and expertise to cancer researchers going forwards.