Impact on: Cancer

IHI and IMI projects are investigating the complexities of cancer, enhancing cancer prevention measures, figuring out how to diagnose patients earlier, optimising treatments, and researching how to improve patients’ quality of life.

 

What's the problem?

Although Europe accounts for only one tenth of the world’s population, a quarter of all cancer cases are found here. That number is growing steadily – between 2010 and 2020 the amount of people living with cancer rose by 3.5% per year. As Europe’s population ages, that number will continue to rise, with latest estimates from the European Commission predicting an increase of 18% by 2040. Cancer deaths are increasing too – current projections indicate that cancer will become the leading cause of death in Europe in ten years, and the mortality is rate projected to rise by 26% by 2040.

For people living with cancer, roughly half have a type that is resistant to our current treatments, meaning that there is an urgent need for better therapies. In Europe, over half a million people have survived a childhood cancer but are dealing with the long-term effects of the disease and its treatment. There are clear gaps in the search for new drugs – of the 150 cancer medicines developed in the last decade, only 9 were approved for children.

 

What are we doing about it? 

In line with Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and Horizon Europe’s Mission Cancer, IHI and IMI projects are investigating the complexities of cancer, enhancing cancer prevention measures, figuring out how to diagnose patients earlier, optimising treatments, and researching how to improve patients’ quality of life. Our projects engage cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary approaches to deliver results from diagnosis to cure, and we tackle 14 different cancer indications from lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer, which are the most common causes of cancer death in the EU, to rarer cancers such as brain and blood cancers which are more often found in children. To date, IMI and IHI have funded 22 cancer projects to the tune of €480 million of public and private investments addressing various aspects of the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. IHI is also paving the way for the next generation of cancer researchers – the large-scale, public-private, multi-sectoral cancer projects under IHI’s remit involve many stakeholders and address a wide range of concerns, making them the ideal training ground for young researchers.

 

IHI / IMI research is...

revealing why some patients respond to cancer treatments, while others don’t

 

Sometimes people who initially responded well to treatment suddenly develop resistance. The PERSIST-SEQ project is investigating the mechanisms behind this phenomenon, using state-of-the-art technology to sequence the genetic code of 5 million individual cancer cells before, during and after treatment. The IMMUcan project is investigating why some patients respond well to a type of cancer treatment called immunotherapy whereas others require a combination of immunotherapy with other treatments. Differences in the microenvironment around the tumours is likely to be the culprit behind this, and IMMUcan is analysing tumour tissue and blood samples from people with lung, colorectal, head and neck, breast and renal cancers to shed some light on what’s happening. They have produced a “Google Maps” tool for tumours, which allows researchers to speedily decide what is the most relevant part of the tumour to study further.

...leveraging big data to yield new insights

The HARMONY big data platform contains over 179 000 blood cancer patient datasets with 115 000 currently available for analysis. Included in the EMA’s public electronic catalogue for real-world data sources, the project is continuing to publish insights gleaned from the database – for instance, the project analysed 11 000 multiple myeloma cases and found that a group of patients previously classified as “intermediate risk” are much more diverse that originally thought. The IDERHA project is developing a database of lung cancer patients’ journeys, from early screening to late-stage care, using real-world data and wearable-collected data as well as other types of data. This will be one of the first pan-European health data spaces as envisaged by the European Health Data Space (EHDS). The PIONEER and OPTIMA projects are both developing datasets based on real-world data, the PIONEER one on prostate cancer specifically and OPTIMA on prostate, breast and lung cancer. Both projects are contributing to the UroEvidenceHub, a platform that provides doctors with recommendations for patients with urological conditions. The BIGPICTURE project has created a valuable data resource for AI model development and validation in digital pathology (3 million images with annotations).

…establishing Europe as a leader in theranostics

Theranostics is the pairing of diagnostic tests and therapies that bind to the same molecular targets. For instance, a molecule targeting a specific protein on a cancer cell could carry a radioactive isotope that shows up on a scan to diagnose the disease, and then another radioactive isotope designed to destroy cancer cells. IHI has three projects in our theranostics portfolio – one of these, ACCELERATE.EU, aims to develop new radiotheranostic pairs featuring the radioactive isotope astatine-211 (211At) that targets cancer cells. 211At emits alpha particles, and so could prove effective at treating cancers that are resistant to beta and gamma particles as well as chemotherapy. The project is focusing its efforts on pancreatic, breast and brain cancer. The ILLUMINATE project focuses on Lutetium-177-PSMA (Lu-177-PSMA), a combination of a treatment (Lu-177) and a molecule that sticks to a specific protein found on prostate cancer cells (PSMA). However, despite the success of this treatment approximately 30% of patients do not benefit from it. The project wants to optimise imaging technology and associated decision-making tools to identify earlier on those patients who are most likely to benefit from Lu-177-PSMA. Added to that, the project aims to improve the production process of Lu-177-PSMA, because the raw material used to develop the molecule is scarce.

…hunting for new ways to spot cancer

 

When cancer develops, the body release biomarkers into the bloodstream. Focusing on specific types of breast and lung cancer, CANCER-ID examined the existing technologies for enriching, isolating and analysing three blood-based biomarkers (circulating tumour cells, circulating-free tumour DNA and circulating micro-RNAs), benchmarked the technologies, and then developed and tested protocols for how they should be used in any laboratory in a standardised way, including guidance on how samples should be handled. When patients with early-stage cancer undergo surgery to remove the tumour, it can be difficult to tell if the disease has already spread to other parts of the body and if the patient needs additional treatment following surgery. The GUIDE.MRD project is conducting a clinical trial to see whether testing blood for small fragments of cancer cells called circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) could be a new solution for detecting residual disease. 

...smoothing the path towards new and better childhood cancer treatments ‌The ITCC-P4 project has developed the world’s largest repertoire of patient-derived models of paediatric tumours, supported by a comprehensive dataset of corresponding molecular and pharmacological characterization. More than 400 models were gathered by the project, covering over 20 common childhood cancers. The c4c project, while not focused specifically on cancer, has set up an expert network and range of tools on conducting clinical trials for children.
‌...developing new ways of treating cancer ‌The PROTECT trial project is comparing a type of treatment called proton therapy to traditional radiotherapy, with a view towards fewer side effects and faster recovery time for patients. A trial is being run on 400 people with oesophageal cancer in 9 countries – and if it’s successful, proton therapy could become a standard treatment for this type of cancer. IMAGIO focuses on Interventional Oncology: minimally invasive cancer treatments that often use medical imaging during the procedure to guide miniature instruments through the body to attack tumour cells, reducing tissue damage and sparing healthy cells.
…developing better models for testing new treatments ‌Testing new cell therapies for solid tumours like breast cancer is challenging, and the complexity of cell therapies means that the human body can sometimes respond in unexpected ways. The imSAVAR project has developed a breast cancer-on-chip model that incorporates a suite of the body’s cells, giving a more realistic picture of how the body could respond to cell therapies.
…clearing regulatory hurdles ‌In recent years, scientists have created engineered ‘T’ cells to seek out and destroy cancer cells, however there are a number of speed bumps in the way. Chief amongst them is a lack of awareness about cell and gene therapies and how best to regulate them. The T2EVOLVE project sets out to accelerate the process of developing CAR-T cell therapy in the EU and has published a set of recommendations to speed up the regulatory process.
…improving patients’ quality of life ‌Patient reported outcomes (PROs) provide important information about quality of life that can help decision makers to better understand the benefits and risks of specific medicines. SISAQOL is developing a set of recommendations to provide advice on how to analyse and interpret quality-of-life data and how to ensure better comparability of PROs across clinical trials.