Summary
Today, 20% of childhood cancers remain incurable and cancer kills 6 000 young people in Europe every year, making it the leading cause of disease-related death in the under-19s. Moreover, two thirds of those who survive a cancer in childhood experience long-term side effects as a result of their treatment. The challenge for scientists seeking to develop new treatments is the lack of tools to study childhood cancers, which are quite different in nature to most cancers found in adults.
The ITCC-P4 project will develop a large-scale platform comprising 400 novel research tools based on cells and tissues from patients covering 10 common childhood cancers, including neuroblastoma, high grade glioma, and osteosarcoma. The tools will allow researchers to explore the biology of paediatric cancers, identify sub-groups of patients that might respond better to certain treatments, and carry out tests on potential drugs.
Ultimately, the platform should significantly add to our understanding of childhood cancers and speed up the development of new treatments. The project resulted in the establishment of a spin-off company, ITCC-P4 gGmbH, which utilises the results of the project and develops patient-specific preclinical laboratory models for the most common high-risk childhood cancers.
Achievements & News
May 2025
IMI and IHI projects are boosting paediatric research and development, writes IHI’s Nathalie Seigneuret in Frontiers in Medicine.
September 2023
IMI project ITCC-P4 addresses the urgent need for better tools to study childhood cancers
February 2022
The IMI-funded ITCCP4 project joined forces with US experts in paediatric cancer to reach a much-needed consensus on the best...
January 2021
ITCC-P4 are creating a platform of hundreds of childhood cancer tumour models that can be used to test promising molecules
February 2022
The IMI-funded ITCC-P4 project’s methodology helped identify some of the best targets in childhood tumours that could be candidates for...
Because childhood cancer is rare, it receives relatively little scientific attention. Pharma companies have in their possession molecules that hold promise as drugs for use in child cancer patients, but there has been a lack of tools and animal models that can be used to test the molecules’ effects on tumours. ITCC-P4 was conceived to fix this problem###; the project is creating hundreds of different childhood tumours in mouse models in order to study them in detail and, ultimately, use them to test out promising molecules that will lead to new drugs.
‘Our most fervent hope is that the tumour models within the platform represent the heterogeneity across paediatric tumour types. So, let’s say for instance, there are 30 ‘ways’ for a normal cell to essentially go haywire and become a childhood sarcoma. We expect to have in our models those 30 ‘ways’ represented,’ explains project leader Louis Stancato of Eli Lilly.
‘In other words, a patient comes into a clinic, a chunk of his or her tumour is taken and then sequenced, and it’s found that, for example, the cell has gone awry in this particular way. The idea is that we have models like that in our repertoire and we can test molecules against that particular mode of tumorigenesis. We can see which drugs are efficacious, which ones are active. If the child has a certain mutation, well we hope to have that mutation represented in our collection, and hopefully we can identify drugs in the pipeline - or maybe even on the market already - that might target that particular mutation.’
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Participants
Show participants on mapEFPIA companies
- Bayer Aktiengesellschaft, Leverkusen, Germany
- Charles River Discovery Research Services Germany GMBH, Freiburg, Germany
- Eli Lilly And Company LTD, Basingstoke, United Kingdom
- F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Basel, Switzerland
- Pfizer Limited, Sandwich, United Kingdom
- Pharma Mar SA, Madrid, Spain
Universities, research organisations, public bodies, non-profit groups
- Academisch Medisch Centrum Bij De Universiteit Van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Alleanza Contro Il Cancro, Roma, Italy
- Charite - Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
- Fundacio Privada Per A La Recerca I La Docencia Sant Joan De Deu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
- Innovative Therapies For Children With Cancer Association, Villejuif, France
- Institut Curie, Paris, France
- Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
- Institute Of Cancer Research: The Royal Cancer Hospital Lbg, London, United Kingdom
- Medizinische Universitaet Wien, Wien, Austria
- Prinses Maxima Centrum Voor Kinderoncologie BV, Utrecht, Netherlands
- St Anna Kinderkrebsforschung Verein, Wien, Austria
- Universitat Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies (<€500 m turnover)
- Experimentelle Pharmakologie Und Onkologie Berlin-Buch GMBH, Berlin, Germany
- Xentech SAS, Evry, France
Third parties
- Fondazione Irccs Istituto Nazionale Dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
- Gustave Roussy Transfert, Villejuif, France
- Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy
- Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu, Roma, Italy
Participants | |
---|---|
Name | EU funding in € |
Academisch Medisch Centrum Bij De Universiteit Van Amsterdam | 380 300 |
Alleanza Contro Il Cancro | 27 025 |
Charite - Universitaetsmedizin Berlin | 352 562 |
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum Heidelberg | 2 995 864 |
Experimentelle Pharmakologie Und Onkologie Berlin-Buch GMBH | 563 425 |
Fundacio Privada Per A La Recerca I La Docencia Sant Joan De Deu | 129 050 |
Innovative Therapies For Children With Cancer Association | 107 538 |
Institut Curie | 214 038 |
Institut Gustave Roussy | 160 912 |
Institute Of Cancer Research: The Royal Cancer Hospital Lbg | 566 750 |
Medizinische Universitaet Wien | 131 075 |
Prinses Maxima Centrum Voor Kinderoncologie BV | 788 000 |
St Anna Kinderkrebsforschung Verein | 163 285 |
Xentech SAS | 563 425 |
Third parties | |
Name | Funding in € |
Fondazione Irccs Istituto Nazionale Dei Tumori | 26 688 |
Gustave Roussy Transfert | 120 000 |
Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli | 53 375 |
Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu | 26 688 |
Total Cost | 7 370 000 |