Descripción del proyecto
Una red internacional de formación se propone mejorar la radioterapia concentrándose en la biología
Las células sanas reparan mucho mejor los daños del ADN. El objetivo del tratamiento es emplear una radiación focalizada en unas dosis que mate las células cancerosas, pero no las sanas. La radioterapia utiliza la radiación ionizante para tratar el cáncer dañando suficientemente el ADN de las células cancerosas como para causarles la muerte. Sin embargo, se necesita comprender mejor los cambios inducidos por la radiación en los tumores, su microentorno y el sistema inmunitario para poder mejorar los resultados de esta técnica. THERADNET aúna a expertos en radiobiología de seis países con el fin de lograr la masa crítica necesaria para fomentar nuevos conocimientos e innovación en el ámbito de la radioterapia. Esto preparará el terreno para un uso más eficaz de esta potente arma contra la mayoría de los tipos de cáncer.
Objetivo
Radiotherapy alone or in multimodality approaches is applied in 45-60% of all cancer patients, but despite technical innovations approximately only 50% are cured. Disease recurrence may be due to regrowth of the primary tumor or metastatic outgrowth. Intrinsic and acquired resistance of the tumor and adverse reactions in the co-irradiated surrounding normal tissues dampen a successful therapy outcome. Substantial improvements are now expected from biologically optimized, personalized radiotherapy. This network is built on the premises that integration of novel-emerging radiobiological and tumor-biological concepts into current standard-of-care will improve outcome of radiotherapy-treated cancer patients. As the field of radiobiology is small in individual countries, it is essential to cooperate on the European level to achieve a critical mass for innovation in research and training.
The partners in this network will stimulate outstanding science to understand the plasticity of an altered tumor metabolism and tumor microenvironment, including the immune system, prior to, and in response to radiotherapy, as well as related dose-limiting adverse effects in normal tissues. Research and development of novel combined treatment modalities in these areas will be performed in models as close as possible to the clinical situation to evaluate their potential to widen the therapeutic window beyond standard-of-care.
Students will benefit from outstanding expertise and collaborations within academia and industry integrating novel concepts into translational cancer and radiation research. This will guarantee high employability in various sectors of cancer research and precision medicine. The European community will benefit from the pursuit of innovative hypotheses, training of new researchers, and dissemination of knowledge. By combatting a major death-related disease in Europe, this project will raise health and bring long-term benefit to the European and international community.
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MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinador
8006 Zurich
Suiza