Around 10 million people died from cancer in the year 2022, according to a recent estimate by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Despite marked improvements in therapy, approximately 1 in 5 men or women will develop cancer in a lifetime, whereas around 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die from it, making cancer one of the leading causes of death worldwide. For the past decades, chemotherapy has been the preferred therapeutic option against several cancers, but at the expense of enduring and trying side effects. Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADC) is a fast growing class of oncology therapeutics. They consist in a highly potent toxic drug connected to an antibody that is selectively targeting certain tumor cells. By combining the cytotoxicity of the drug and the targeting properties of the antibody, ADC kill cancer cells selectively, representing thus a marked improvement compared to conventional chemotherapies. After more than 50 years of research, the marketing of a dozens of ADC has now provided clinicians with innovative therapeutics to fight breast cancer, lymphomas, as well as a variety of leukemia. However, ADC are still riddled with limitations: they can only be used in a limited number of cancers, they are expensive, and still lead to profound side effects.
Targeted Anti-Cancer Therapies (TACT) was an international, multidisciplinary training and research programme aiming to train 11 Early-Stage Researchers (ESR) on the development of state-of-the-art targeted anti-cancer therapeutics and equip them with transferable, future career-enhancing skills to create the next generation of experts in Europe. More specifically, this programme was focused on key interconnected priority themes for the conception of more effective generations of Protein-Drug Conjugates (PDC): site-selective bioconjugation methods; novel and safer payloads; environment-specific cleavable linkers; more efficient protein-based targeting systems; new analytical tools for acute characterization. To do so, TACT relied on a European network composed of nine research groups and companies located in five countries with expertise covering all research fields dealing with PDC. Finally, this training programme also intended to raise awareness of groundbreaking progress in the field of anti-cancer therapy among the non-scientific audience through original communication approaches.
After four years, the TACT programme has fulfilled its ambitions and managed to develop innovative treatment options and form experts in the field – all ESR who finished their thesis are now pursuing a scientific career either in academia or in pharmaceutical companies. Through the production of 3 animated movies and a graphic novel, TACT also kept its promise of developing original communication content aimed at the general public.
