Description du projet
Renforcer les stratégies de surveillance du cancer pourrait réduire le recours à la chirurgie et améliorer les résultats
Les progrès technologiques et une meilleure compréhension des processus pathologiques peuvent élargir les options pour obtenir des traitements moins invasifs et perturbateurs. Par exemple, assez récemment, la lobotomie constituait un traitement alternatif légitime contre des maladies mentales graves qui résistaient à d’autres thérapies. Le traitement du cancer entre dans une nouvelle ère, car il est de plus en plus reconnu que la priorité accordée à l’ablation chirurgicale d’une tumeur diagnostiquée peut entraîner des risques qui l’emportent sur les avantages. La surveillance active est désormais un plan thérapeutique défini qui implique de surveiller de près l’état d’un patient pour détecter tout signe de changement sans traitement. CAST prévoit d’améliorer notre compréhension du comportement et des stratégies de surveillance du cancer dans le but ultime de réduire les interventions chirurgicales inutiles tout en améliorant les résultats pour les patients et la qualité de vie.
Objectif
When a patient is discovered to have cancer, one of the primary goals is to have the tumour removed by surgery. Although
this provides excellent oncological control, it is associated with morbidity and functional problems in cancer survivors. Recent
studies have shown that the immediacy to perform a resection does not always lead to improved clinical outcome.
Furthermore, cancer surgery can often lead to complications where the quality of life for the patient is compromised by toxic
side effects and /or damage to nerves, organs or healthy tissues. A number of recent clinical trials in the field of cancer
surgery have advocated the concept of watch and wait, watchful waiting, active monitoring or surveillance, which are terms
used to describe a monitoring strategy for cancer. The concept may be antithetical but the functional advantage of these
alternatives is clear even though there is some concern about the risk. Though the evidence is still weak, current studies
suggest that with adequate selection and follow-up, this oncological risk is small. A major consideration for clinicians is now
to maintain quality of life for all patients. Our objective in this proposal is to implement novel approaches so that cancer
surgery can be avoided, where we aim to (a) develop new monitoring technologies from industry so that the surveillance
window can be increased to allow for better treatment options over time and to avoid surgery, (b) develop new ‘watch and
wait’ strategies in order to study the behaviour of the cancer so that any risks to the patient can be minimised leading to a
better clinical outcome and (c) train a new generation of preclinical and clinical scientists to be able to implement this new
concept as standard of care and to maximise the benefits of an active monitoring policy.
Champ scientifique
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinateur
1066 CX Amsterdam
Pays-Bas