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vom 18.07.2024

Cancer Core Europe visit: Together we can achieve more.

On July 5, the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg received a special visit: a delegation from the Cancer Core Europe (CCE) network visited the NCT Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). This meeting provided a valuable opportunity to discuss innovative approaches in cancer research, current joint activities and future collaborations.

Josep Tabernero, Director of the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and Head of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, has been the spokesperson for the CCE since October 2023. He visited the Heidelberg partners for the first time since taking up his post, together with other colleagues from Barcelona.

After a welcome address and an overview of the NCT Heidelberg and its sponsors by Stefan Fröhling, Managing Director of the NCT Heidelberg, Head of Department at the DKFZ and member of the CCE Board, the delegation went into expert discussions with Irene Braña, Global Principal Investigator (PI) of the CCE Basket of Baskets study, Javier Carmona, Chief Scientific Officer CCE, and Elena Chavarria, member of the CCE Operational Board. First on the agenda was the topic of molecular precision oncology and associated studies. This was followed by a discussion on patient-centered research and different facets of involving patients as partners in research and clinical trials.

At the subsequent public CCE symposium "Joining Forces for Translational and Clinical Cancer Research", Josep Tabernero explained the vision, structure and strategy of CCE in his opening speech and made it clear that many challenges in cancer research can only be solved collaboratively. Irene Braña also gave her talk under the motto "What can we do collectively that we cannot do individually?" and presented CCE's work on clinical trials and translational research. Martin Lablans, DKFZ and University Medicine Mannheim, then spoke about the CCE Virtual Data Center, which is currently being set up by his department. Priya Chudasama, DKFZ and NCT Heidelberg, and Bruno Köhler, Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) and NCT Heidelberg, shared their own experiences from the CCE Summer School and the TRYTRAC program (advanced TRaining program for Young leaders in TRAnslational Cancer research) and presented the CCE offers for education and training. Petra Oberrauch, NCT Heidelberg and member of the CCE Operational Board, gave an overview of the structure and contact persons in Heidelberg. The participants of the symposium took the opportunity to ask questions and there were good discussions on the individual topics. Lena Maier-Hein, Managing Director of the NCT Heidelberg and Head of Department at the DKFZ, gave a closing presentation on the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) for medical imaging, highlighting the current status, opportunities and obstacles.

The delegation then visited the NCT Heidelberg, led by Dirk Jäger, Managing Director of the NCT Heidelberg and Head of Medical Oncology at the UKHD.

This was followed by an exchange on clinical study activities at the NCT Heidelberg and possible joint activities, as well as digital oncology, integrated data sets and AI. The meeting concluded with a visit to the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT), led by Amir Abdollahi, Managing Director at the NCT Heidelberg and Head of Translational Radiation Oncology at the UKHD, and Maximilian Knoll from the same department.

Cancer Core Europe was founded in 2014 to accelerate the development of innovative cancer therapies through close collaboration in translational and clinical research. The CCE members share a common vision of reshaping cancer research and treatment, increasing the competitiveness of European cutting-edge research and ensuring the rapid transfer of experimental knowledge and research results to clinics - for the benefit of patients. In addition to the NCT Heidelberg and the DKFZ as well as the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, the seven members include the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre (United Kingdom), Institut Gustave Roussy (France), Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), Netherlands Cancer Institute (Netherlands) and Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano (Italy). From Heidelberg, Michael Baumann, Chairman of the DKFZ, and Stefan Fröhling are members of the Board of Directors.

Further information can be found here and on the Cancer Core Europe Website.