EurocanPlatform is funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme bringing together 28 European cancer Institutions and organisations to work together in a unique collaboration. The centres are sharing infrastructures and collaborating on projects to help advance cancer research and treatment.
The project was carried out between January 2011 to December 2016, closed project. Read the Final Report Summary here.
Objectives
The overarching aim of the project is to improve outcomes for cancer patients and reduce mortality. This is being achieved by focusing on three key areas of research: prevention, early detection and improved treatments.
EurocanPlatform is building the necessary resources and know-how to improve cancer care from bench to bedside: basic research, early and late translational research, clinical research, epidemiological research, implementation in care and population-based outcome research. There have been a few big achievements coming out of the project: one major achievement is the POSEIDON trial, which is testing different drugs in metastatic breast cancer. Another is an Annual Summer School which teaches the next generation of oncologists and researchers about the latest developments in translational cancer research.
Finally, Cancer Core Europe and Cancer Prevention Europe will be long term collaborations aiming to greatly improve cancer rates and outcomes in Europe by creating ‘e-hospitals’ which share computer systems, data and best practice
For more information on the EurocanPlatform achievements, you can click here to read Prof. Julio E. Celis’ presentation during the ECPC Annual General Meeting 2015.
ECPC’s Role
The European Cancer Patients Coalition is assisting the platform members in organizing public outreach activities during ECCO congresses, ECPC masterclasses and patients’ workshops, OECI meetings and in disseminating the outcomes of the project.
Biobanking
Through the EurocanPlatform, ECPC and its partners, notably Prof. Riegman, EMC, WP10 leader, have compiled a concise document which provides European cancer patients with the basic knowledge to understand the importance and power of biobanking. The booklet called ‘Biobanking: FAQs’ was done in collaboration with expert patient Margaret Wilcox (Independent Cancer Patients’ Voice).
ECPC launched the FAQ booklet during the Annual General Meeting 2014 in a 2 hour session called ‘’The importance of Biobanking in Cancer- patient’s perspective’’.
Research Translation of Biomarkers
As part of the project, ECPC together with two member organisations, K.E.F.I. from Greece and former NFK (Levenmetkanker) from the Netherlands, organised a roundtable meeting which was filmed during the European Cancer Congress 2013 to discuss the importance of biomarkers in cancer research, the new molecular risk factors that could help the early detection of high risk patients and the selection of the most suitable treatment for each patient. You can watch the entire debate here.
Funding
EurocanPlatform is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7): the European Union’s Research and Innovation for 2007-2013, Project N° 260791.
Project Website
https://ecancer.org/institute/eurocanplatform/institutes.php