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ICT Enabled Prediction of Cancer Reoccurrence

Description du projet


Virtual Physiological Human
NeoMark will record and combine heterogeneous clinical, laboratory, molecular and imaging data to develop a data integration environment facilitating multiscale and multilevel modelling.

Objectives of the project

The clinical problem
The continuous improvement in treatment protocols for neoplastic diseases has substantially increased the number of patients who achieve a complete disappearance of the disease after treatment. At this stage there are no clinical, laboratory or imaging evidences of the neoplastic mass, but there can still be invisible residual disease that can evolve overtime and metastasize. A strict follow-up is usually undertaken and adjuvant treatments are planned to reduce the risk of disease reoccurrence, however they have important side-effects that may harm also patients who are already completely recovered. Knowing in advance which patients have the higher risk of disease reoccurrence would be important to focus resources and initiate adjuvant treatments only in a limited, high-risk subgroup of patients and would allow starting an appropriate treatment in time with the potential to improve patient survival and quality of life.

NeoMark will pursue the identification of imaging and genomic/ proteomic markers aimed at modelling recurrence of neoplastic disease with two major clinical/scientific purposes:
1. identify subjects at higher risk of reoccurrence after reaching remission;
2. early diagnose the presence of a reoccurrence.
The technical target of NeoMark will be the development of two functional environments: one for the definition of biomarker profiles and one for the follow-up of the evolution of the disease.

Expected Results & Impacts
Oral cancer holds the eight position in the cancer incidence ranking worldwide, squamous cell carcinoma representing 5% of all cancers for men and 2% for women (WHO). Patients with oral cancer have to deal with the impact of the disease and its treatment on physical appearance and on the ability to eat and to speak, with a significant decrease of the quality of life. Despite advances in salvage treatment of patients with recurrent cancer, outcomes for re-treatment are generally poor. Hence the importance of the identification of specific “markers” for oral cancer whose appearance during follow-ups will enable early and softer interventions and decrease the risks of death.
NeoMark expects to develop a system able to early detect the “markers” specific for oral cancer and so enable:
• early and more specific diagnosis of cancer reoccurrences;
• more targeted and effective interventions based on the patient-specific disease profile;
• avoiding unnecessary treatments for patients at very low risk of reoccurrence;
• optimising the work of physicians and the usage of resources;
• improving the scientific and medical knowledge on oral cancer processes;
• improve patients’ quality of life;
• increase the life duration for patients with cancer reoccurrence.

NeoMark will perform research in the integration of heterogeneous clinical, laboratory, molecular and imaging data to develop a data integration environment facilitating multiscale and multilevel modeling, aimed at advancing models and methods currently in use to predict neoplastic reoccurrences, and to apply it to the study of oral cancer.Specifically the scientific target will be to apply this multi-level data integration environment to the monitoring of the disease after remission, in order to early identify local or metastatic reoccurrence of the disease.The technical target will be the development of two functional envirnments: one for the definition of biomarker profiles and one for the follow-up of the evolution of the disease. They will be based on the "fusion" of information from clinical data from health records and standard laboratory markers; from histological data from tumor mass specimens; from high-throughput genomic data from tumor tissue specimens, profiling gene expression at whole-genome level by oligo-RNA microarrays; from high-throughput genomic data from circulating cells specimens (whole blood sample), profiling gene expression at whole-genome level by oligo-RNA microarrays; from imaging data of the prime tumor mass (and secondary localizations if present) through imaging techniques, including image fusion, where relevant.The outcomes of the project will be validated in two primary Clinical Centres in Spain and in Italy.In this phase the early exploitation of NeoMark will also be assessed through the use of a RT-PCR platform to develop highly individual diagnostic tests to be used both at the time of first diagnosis, as well as for reoccurrence identification.

Champ scientifique

Programme(s)

Thème(s)

Appel à propositions

FP7-ICT-2007-2
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Régime de financement

CP - Collaborative project (generic)

Coordinateur

AZIENDA OSPEDALIERO-UNIVERSITARIA DI PARMA
Contribution de l’UE
€ 707 776,00
Adresse
VIA GRAMSCI 14
43100 Parma
Italie

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Région
Nord-Est Emilia-Romagna Parma
Type d’activité
Public bodies (excluding Research Organisations and Secondary or Higher Education Establishments)
Contact administratif
Michele MALANCA (Mr.)
Liens
Coût total
Aucune donnée

Participants (9)

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Dernière mise à jour: 5 Avril 2023

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/224483/fr

European Union, 2024