ISPIC — Image-Guided Surgery (IGS) and Personalised Postoperative Immunotherapy To Improving Cancer Outcome

Results in brief

Image-Guided Surgery (IGS) and Personalised Postoperative Immunotherapy To Improving Cancer Outcome

Scientists worldwide have been studying the role of the immune system in fighting cancer for many years. However, it was only recently that the field of cancer immunotherapy has gained momentum as evidence emerged of lasting anti-cancer benefits to patients who previously had very few treatment options. It is important for our society if we can contain (if not cure completely) this disease and to eliminate its potential to spread. Cancer immunotherapy is now seen as a breakthrough as it has the potential to revolutionise the way we treat many forms of cancer. The current state-of-art for the management of cancer starts with surgery, after identification of an accessible tumour mass. Surgery remains an effective treatment option for many types of cancer today and it is considered curative treatment for most solid tumours. It forms part of a multidisciplinary approach used in conjunction with radiotherapy or chemotherapy. These approaches, however, have several limitations, including inability of surgical resection to affect distal metastatic disease, toxicity to healthy tissues with chemotherapy and lack of effectiveness of radiation therapy in more aggressive tumours. The observation that cancer can relapse months or years after initial surgery implies that micrometastases still resides within the body in a latent state. The basic concept of our proposal is to develop a biomaterials-based encapsulated, defined library of different immunotherapeutic biomolecules after surgery as part of a novel cancer management strategy. The work revolves around the recruitment and mobility of young clinical, scientific and technological researchers between thirteen consortium beneficiaries and across six different countries. The goal of this study is to address the issues of postoperative immunomodulation that are needed to improve cancer outcome across a specialised, interdisciplinary and cross-sector group of European laboratories.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

The basic concept of our proposal is to develop nanoparticle-based encapsulated libraries of different immunotherapeutic biomolecules for treatment after surgery as part of a novel cancer management strategy. The current state-of-art for the management of cancer starts with surgery, after identification of an accessible tumour mass. Surgery remains an effective treatment option for many types of cancer today and it is considered curative treatment for most solid tumours. It forms part of a multidisciplinary approach used in conjunction with radiotherapy or chemotherapy. These approaches, however, have several limitations, including inability of surgical resection to affect distal metastatic disease, toxicity to healthy tissues with chemotherapy and lack of effectiveness of radiation therapy in more aggressive tumours. The observation that cancer can relapse months or years after initial surgery implies that micrometastases still resides within the body in a latent state. Our proposal is to take cancer therapy to beyond state-of-art by implementing techniques which will take us into new directions. This includes a) new methods to identify immune gene profiles and biomarkers b) transgenic mouse models where the complex interactions that underlie immune function can be visualised as multiplexed events in real time and c) the use of nanoparticle-based libraries of immune modulating reagent combinations. There are three key objectives within this project: i) to use immune gene signatures to monitor disease progression and therapeutic efficacy of immunotherapy combinations on nanoparticle-based platforms, ii) to optimise the platform to encapsulate libraries of immune components for more personalised, accurate and timely delivery of the payload to its intended target and iii) to optimise the overall cancer management process of image-guided surgery followed by postoperative immunotherapy so that we can ultimately provide a lifetime of protection against cancer.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

PERCUROS BV · 's-Gravenhage (Den Haag)CoordinatorNetherlands
ACADEMISCH ZIEKENHUIS LEIDEN · LeidenNetherlands
ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE · LausanneSwitzerland
ERASMUS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM ROTTERDAM · RotterdamNetherlands
HELSE BERGEN HF · BergenNorway
JENACELL GMBH · JENAGermany
MEDRES-MEDICAL RESEARCH GMBH · KolnGermany
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT · DelftNetherlands
TECOBIOSCIENCES GMBH · LANDSHUTGermany
THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD · SHEFFIELDUnited Kingdom
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI CAMERINO · CamerinoItaly
UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT · MaastrichtNetherlands
UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM · AmsterdamNetherlands
UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN · BergenNorway

ISPIC · Image-Guided Surgery (IGS) and Personalised Postoperative Immunotherapy To Improving Cancer Outcome

Results in brief

Image-Guided Surgery (IGS) and Personalised Postoperative Immunotherapy To Improving Cancer Outcome

Project objective

Participants

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