ITCC-P4

Cancer is the first cause of death by disease in children and young people. More than 35,000 cases are diagnosed annually and more than 6,000 young patients die each year.

Yet, only 9 of the 150 cancer medicines approved in the last decade targeted children’s cancer. There are many reasons for this, one of which is the lack of appropriate tools for drugs against children’s cancer to be tested on.

The ITCC-P4 project developed a suite of models specifically for testing new drugs for paediatric cancers, and is now providing those models to drugmakers for a price via a non-profit association.  

Models are important tools for researchers that give an indication of how the human body – and cancer tumours – might respond to specific medications. Drugs are tested first on models to gauge how effective they might be before progressing to human trials.

Although there are many models established for researching drugs for adult cancers, the same is not true for children’s cancers. In children, cancers are often more aggressive and behave differently to the adult versions. Children’s immune systems also behave differently to adults, so testing on adult models is not sufficient.

The public-private framework offered by the IMI ITCC-P4 project was the perfect setting to develop models specific to children’s cancer and then make them available to drugmakers through the establishment of a sustainable non-profit organisation.

Thanks to the models developed by ITCC-P4, the barriers to developing drugs for childhood cancer have been lowered.

The project established a comprehensive repertoire of new paediatric tumour models, with more than 300 established from the tumours of patients. More than 20 different paediatric cancers are now represented.

In the form of a self-sustaining non-profit association, ITCC-P4 will continue its work by making these models available for use by industry. ITCC-P4 will also continue its R&D activities, so that new and better models can be produced and that the models on offer will constantly be at the cutting-edge. For more information and to make use of its models  and services, visit the project website: https://itccp4.com/