Descrizione del progetto
Una rete di formazione internazionale punta a migliorare la radioterapia concentrandosi sulla biologia
Le cellule sane sono decisamente migliori nel riparare i danni del DNA. L’obiettivo del trattamento è l’utilizzo di radiazioni mirate, in dosi che uccidano le cellule tumorali ma non quelle sane. La radioterapia utilizza la radiazione ionizzante per trattare il cancro, danneggiando il DNA nelle cellule tumorali in modo sufficiente da provocare la morte cellulare. Per migliorare gli esiti della radioterapia è necessaria una migliore comprensione delle variazioni indotte dalle radiazioni sui tumori, sul loro microambiente e sul sistema immunitario. THERADNET riunisce esperti in radiobiologia provenienti da sei paesi, per raggiungere la massa critica necessaria a stimolare nuove idee e innovazioni nella radioterapia, aprendo la strada a un uso più efficace di quest’arma diffusa e potente contro molti tipi di cancro.
Obiettivo
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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Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinatore
8006 Zurich
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