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
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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. |
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...leveraging big data to yield new insights |
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…establishing Europe as a leader in theranostics |
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…hunting for new ways to spot cancer
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...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. |