Project description
New tools for better lung cancer diagnosis
Lung cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, causing 1.8 million deaths worldwide in 2020. In the EU, it makes up 12 % of new cancer cases and 20 % of all cancer-related deaths. Screening programmes can catch lung cancer early, but they often lead to false alarms. This happens because there are not enough reliable tools to tell the difference between cancerous and harmless lung nodules. With this in mind, the ERC-funded eMOCA (early multi-omic cancer assessment) project will study lung cancer using non-invasive and invasive methods to help identify unique microbial markers that will improve diagnosis, predict progression and potentially lead to the development of new targeted treatments.
Objective
Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer related mortality, claiming an estimated 1.8 million lives in 2020. In the EU, lung cancer accounts for 12% of all new cancer diagnoses and 20% of all cancer deaths, Although helpful in identifying early-stage lung cancer, screening programs frequently lead to false-positives and overdiagnosis. This is exacerbated by a lack of clinically useful biomarkers to accurately differentiate between lung cancer and indeterminate nodules found in the lung. Recent studies on lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) suggest that microbial and host genomic signatures could be leveraged to develop useful biomarkers in early-stage disease. However, these studies are based on systemic signatures identified, using metagenomics, in plasma rather than at the site of the disease, the lung. Very little research has been done on lung squamous cell cancer (LUSC). It is likely that both microbial and host signatures in the lungs of patients with LUSC, a more centrally located cancer, will be more specific and have stronger predictive power as biomarkers. Sampling of the lung is difficult however and involves invasive procedures such as bronchoscopy. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a novel non-invasive method of collecting lower airways samples, which I will use to evaluate the lung micro-environment in LUSC. Furthermore, microbial RNA sequencing (metatranscriptome) provides broader and more detailed insight into the active function of microbes in different environments, while metabolomics provides further insight into the by-products of microbial metabolism. Applying this unbiased omic approach (metagenome, metatranscriptome, metabolome & transcriptome) to multiple sample types (blood, sputum, EBC & bronchoscopy samples) will allow identification of novel microbial biomarkers capable of distinguishing between LUSC and non-malignant nodules, and predicting LUSC progression and may help guide the development of new targeted treatment approaches in LUSC.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology prostate cancer
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA transcriptomes
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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2 DUBLIN
Ireland
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