
The goal of EuCanImage is to build a highly secure, federated and large-scale European cancer imaging platform, with capabilities that will greatly enhance the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in oncology. Firstly, the EuCanImage platform will be populated with a completely new data resource totaling over 25,000 single subjects, which will allow to investigate unmet clinical needs like never before, such as for the detection of small liver lesions and metastases of colorectal cancer, or for estimating molecular subtypes of breast tumours and pathological complete response. Secondly, the cancer imaging platform, built by leveraging the well-established Euro-Bioimaging infrastructure, will be cross-linked to biological and health repositories through the European Genome-phenome Archive, allowing to develop multi-scale AI solutions that integrate organ-level, molecular and other clinical predictors into dense patient-specific cancer fingerprints. To deliver this platform, the consortium will build upon several key European initiatives in data sharing for personalised medicine research, including EUCANCAn (cancer genomics and health data sharing), euCanSHare (cardiac imaging and omics data sharing) and EUCAN-Connect (federated data analytics). Furthermore, to foster international cooperation and leverage existing success stories, the consortium comprises the coordinators of The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA), the US cancer imaging repository funded by the National Cancer Institute. This will allow EuCanImage to leverage a unique 10-year long experience in cancer imaging storage, anonymisation, curation and management. Finally, a close collaboration between world renown clinical, radiomics, AI and legal experts within the consortium and beyond will establish well-needed guidelines for AI development and validation named FUTURE, for delivering Fair, Universal, Traceable, Usable, Robust and Explainable decision support systems for future cancer care.
<< Objectives >>The main aim is the digital transformation of the microscopy teaching and learning, by setting a practical guide and steps to follow in order to achieve a cost-effective implementation and the successful use of virtual microscopy (VM) technology to improve the histology and histopathology curriculum in our medical schools.The project intend to increase the undergraduate and postgraduate students’ vocational skills, by digitalisation of the teaching of microscopy in Medical universities.<< Implementation >>The designed activities are:1. Project Management2. Mapping research on setting up the EU curricula on histology and histopathology 3. Virtual microscopy library Platform – collection of slides of human organs and basic diseases (including Slide annotations)4. Training guide for advanced VM teaching in microscopy5. Open online course on VM (Didactical content taught, Clinical case-based studies, MCQ based quizzes), including piloting of the course.<< Results >>Chart on standards for medical universities for adaptation of their curricula to VMEU curricula on Histology and Histopathology, using VMGroup of experts with expertise in VMVM online library (average of 200 slides of normal and pathological human tissues), with multilingual slide annotations Training for the didactic staff Training guide for advanced VM teaching (6 languages), video tutorialsOpen online course on VM, piloting with 400 studentsDissemination events, articles, posts
Liver cancer in the paediatric population is rare with an incidence approximately 1-1.5 per million population. The commonest tumour seen in the childhood population is hepatoblastoma (HB), usually seen in young children and infants. Much rarer (about 10% of paediatric liver cancers) is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), usually seen in the teenage population and sometimes associated with underlying cirrhotic liver diseases. The ChiLTERN project relates to topic PHC 18 ‘establishing effectiveness of health care interventions in the paediatric population’. The ChiLTERN project builds on a unique opportunity to undertake a comprehensive research programme linked to an ambitious global partnership which will see the single largest clinical trial (the Paediatric Hepatic International Tumour Trial - PHITT) ever undertaken in this population of patients, with several randomised questions in six subgroups of patients. ChiLTERN will allow us to move towards an era of personalised therapy in which each patient will receive the correct amount of chemotherapy and will undergo has the best surgical operation (surgical resection or liver transplant). By using both clinical and biological information, we can assign patients more accurately to risk groups based on their survival. Using genetic tests and biomarkers, we will determine those children who may be at risk of developing long term side effects (deafness, heart failure, kidney damage). In addition, biomarkers will allow us to monitor during therapy and detect toxicities early before serious damage is done so that we can adapt treatment and prevent these problems. Finally, we will be using imaging technology tools which will help our surgeons plan liver operations more safely and effectively. Ultimately ChiLTERN will allow us to cure more children with liver cancer, expose fewer children to toxic chemotherapy and ensure their surgery is both effective and safe.
The PRECODE Network (PancREatic Cancer OrganoiDs rEsearch) central mission is to establish pancreatic organoid research firmly in the European Union, by training the next generation of creative and innovative researchers in pancreatic cancer. This will be done through a shared doctorate program of excellence that fulfils the three “I”: international, interdisciplinary and intersectorial. Organoids can be viewed as small micro-organs which can recapitulate the organization and the function thereof. As micro-organs organoids can be used to reduce animal experiments and help to reach 3R goals. Organoids from pancreatic cancer will help us to learn which drugs might help in the therapy of this terrible disease. They can be isolated from a variety of clinical sources with minimal material needed. This makes them a perfect tool for precision medicine. Sequencing, metabolomics and high throughput in vitro experiments to deduct the best possible drug combination fit hand in glove with this approach. Training of ESRs will be achieved by e-learning, workshops and secondments. They will earn to cultivate and manipulate organoids as well as cutting edge molecular biology techniques. Therefore our work group consists of 15 beneficiaries and 7 partner organization (including three patient advocate groups from Sweden, Italy and Germany) to develop those technologies and to train ESRs in their application. PRECODE will therefore connect the concepts of investigation, education and innovation establishing a capacitation for the ESRs that goes beyond the state of the art and that will allow them to improve their competences and their professional career at the same time that we advance towards innovation in the field of pancreatic cancer research.