WP1 (ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT): The LungCARD RISE project started with the Kick-off and General meetings. The main project´s rules, including a Consortium Agreement, were presented by LungCARD Coordinator Dr. Orfeu Flores, Scientific Coordinator Dr. Carla Clemente and Project Manager Dr. Helena Gonçalves. The Mid Term Meeting occurred at Geneva on the 11th April, 2018 with the participation of the Consortium and European Commission.
On RISE 2018 Coordinators’ Day the LungCARD project manager Dr. Helena Gonçalves was invited to give testimonial about Ethics issues and how to handle them during a RISE project.
Due to COVID-19 Pandemic, the secondments plan was extended for a total duration of 70 months.
WP2 (CURRENT CLINICAL PRACTICES LANDSCAPE): Secondments were mainly focused in know-how exchange, available resources (e.g. equipments) and acquiring a global knowledge of current clinical practices related to Lung Cancer pharmacogenomics and therapy. The data associated with research and clinical practices in Lung cancer from 18 countries across 5 continents was published (
https://jbuon.com/archive/24-1-11.pdf(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)).
WP3 (FREEDOM-TO-OPERATE IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES): Information about legal regulations and practice regarding the NSCLC diagnostics and treatment, with the emphasis on targeted therapy in beneficiaries partners’ countries was collected (included in the report of protocol ID VI.1). Intelectual property rights (IPR) related to LungCARD system are planned to be assessed in next coming years at the country of each participant.
WP4 (RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT OF LUNGCARD SYSTEM): The WP4 of LungCARD project aims to develop a LungCARD system used to generate the DNA target regions (biomarkers) associated with the selection of therapy in NSCLC from blood samples and automatic report of results (clinical report).
WP5 (LUNGCARD SYSTEM VALIDATION): The performance of LungCARD system for the detection of the mutation in exon 19 of the EGFR gene (E746-A759del) was assessed by an in-house analytical validation at STAB VIDA (including inter and intra-batch reproducibility, limit of detection (LOD) assessment and storage stability analysis) followed by a clinical validation with cfDNA samples from NSCLC patients performed at clinical partner's laboratories.
WP6 (LUNGCARD IMPLEMENTATION IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES): During the secondments STAB VIDA gave access to the background necessary to understand both the technological development and the scientific principle behind the project. The secondees were trained on the use of Doctor Vida Pocket and participated on the assay development process in order to adapt this technology to different sample types (plasma whole blood and extracted RNA).
WP7 (COMMUNICATION, DISSEMINATION & KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER): The secondees are encouraged to attend/present workshops, seminars and conferences in the relevant topics for the project (e.g. LAMP, lung cancer disease, etc). EU funds were acknowledged in all the activities performed by LungCARD partners/beneficiaries.
WP8 (Ethics Requirements): Fully accomplished already. Also an independent Ethics Adviser was appointed to oversee the implementation of the ethical concerns involved in this research.
