ITCC-P4

ITCC pediatric preclinical POC platform
ITCC-P4 project logo

FACTS & FIGURES

Start Date
End Date
Call
IMI2 - Call 7
Grant agreement number
116064

Type of Action: 
RIA (Research and Innovation Action)

Contributions
IMI Funding
7 370 000
EFPIA in kind
11 767 735
Other
792 738
Total Cost
19 930 473

Summary

Today, 20% of childhood cancers remain incurable and cancer kills 6 000 young people in Europe every year, making it the leading cause of disease-related death in the under-19s. Moreover, two thirds of those who survive a cancer in childhood experience long-term side effects as a result of their treatment. The challenge for scientists seeking to develop new treatments is the lack of tools to study childhood cancers, which are quite different in nature to most cancers found in adults.

The ITCC-P4 project will develop a large-scale platform comprising 400 novel research tools based on cells and tissues from patients covering 10 common childhood cancers, including neuroblastoma, high grade glioma, and osteosarcoma. The tools will allow researchers to explore the biology of paediatric cancers, identify sub-groups of patients that might respond better to certain treatments, and carry out tests on potential drugs.

Ultimately, the platform should significantly add to our understanding of childhood cancers and speed up the development of new treatments.

Achievements & News

Lab-grown tumours will help end drought of childhood cancer drugs
January 2021

Because childhood cancer is rare, it receives relatively little scientific attention. Pharma companies have in their possession molecules that hold promise as drugs for use in child cancer patients, but there has been a lack of tools and animal models that can be used to test the molecules’ effects on tumours. ITCC-P4 was conceived to fix this problem###; the project is creating hundreds of different childhood tumours in mouse models in order to study them in detail and, ultimately, use them to test out promising molecules that will lead to new drugs.

‘Our most fervent hope is that the tumour models within the platform represent the heterogeneity across paediatric tumour types. So, let’s say for instance, there are 30 ‘ways’ for a normal cell to essentially go haywire and become a childhood sarcoma. We expect to have in our models those 30 ‘ways’ represented,’ explains project leader Louis Stancato of Eli Lilly.

‘In other words, a patient comes into a clinic, a chunk of his or her tumour is taken and then sequenced, and it’s found that, for example, the cell has gone awry in this particular way. The idea is that we have models like that in our repertoire and we can test molecules against that particular mode of tumorigenesis. We can see which drugs are efficacious, which ones are active. If the child has a certain mutation, well we hope to have that mutation represented in our collection, and hopefully we can identify drugs in the pipeline - or maybe even on the market already - that might target that particular mutation.’

Find out more

Participants Show participants on map

EFPIA companies
  • Amgen, Brussels, Belgium
  • Astrazeneca AB, Södertälje, Sweden
  • Bayer Aktiengesellschaft, Leverkusen, Germany
  • Charles River Discovery Research Services Germany GMBH, Freiburg, Germany
  • Eli Lilly And Company LTD, Basingstoke, United Kingdom
  • F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Basel, Switzerland
  • Institut De Recherches Servier, Suresnes, France
  • Janssen Pharmaceutica Nv, Beerse, Belgium
  • Pfizer Limited, Sandwich, Kent , United Kingdom
  • Pharma Mar SA, Colmenar Viejo, Spain
  • Sanofi-Aventis Recherche & Developpement, Chilly Mazarin, France
Universities, research organisations, public bodies, non-profit groups
  • Academisch Medisch Centrum Bij De Universiteit Van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Alleanza Contro Il Cancro, Roma, Italy
  • Charite - Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  • Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • Fundacio Privada Per A La Recerca I La Docencia Sant Joan De Deu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
  • Innovative Therapies For Children With Cancer Association, Villejuif, France
  • Institut Curie, Paris, France
  • Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
  • Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany
  • Medizinische Universitaet Wien, Vienna, Austria
  • Prinses Maxima Centrum Voor Kinderoncologie BV, Utrecht, Netherlands
  • St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschung GMBH, Wien, Austria
  • The Institute Of Cancer Research: Royal Cancer Hospital, London, United Kingdom
  • Universitaet Ulm, Ulm, Germany
  • Universitat Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
  • University Of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies (<€500 m turnover)
  • Experimentelle Pharmakologie Und Onkologie Berlin-Buch GMBH, Berlin, Germany
  • Xentech SAS, Evry, France
Third parties
  • Fondazione Irccs Istituto Nazionale Dei Tumori, Milano, Italy
  • Gustave Roussy Transfert, Villejuif, France
  • Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy
  • Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu, Rome, Italy
Project leader
Louis Stancato
Eli Lilly and Company
Project co-leader
Hubert Caron
Roche