Cancer, the 2nd most common form of death after cardiovascular disease, is a major European health concern. In 2006, 3.1 million new cases were diagnosed and 1.7 million deaths were attributed to cancer within Europe. The European Commission has a “European Partnership for Action against Cancer” (IP/09/1380) with the aim of reducing the number of cancer cases by 15% by 2020. A key challenge is to “Develop a more coordinated approach to cancer-related research across Europe”. Around 50% of patients receive radiotherapy as part of their cancer treatment and it is 2nd only to surgery in its ability to cure cancer. However, radiotherapy is limited by the effects induced in the surrounding healthy tissues, which are very harmful for the patients. New approaches that enhance radiosensitivity within tumours have the potential to provide a major impact on the delivery of radiotherapy to patients. Two of the most promising approaches (hadron and nanoparticles-enhanced therapies) are driven by nanoscale phenomena.
This proposal brings together world-leading researchers from the academic and private sectors to aim at developing hadron and NP-enhanced therapies, united by the common purpose of optimising radiotherapy by understanding and exploiting nanoscale processes induced by radiation. Such an understanding will open a new era in which radiotherapy is revolutionised to provide more successful cancer treatment with subsequent economic and ‘quality of life’ benefits for the EU population as a whole. The main objective of this intersectorial and multidisciplinary ITN is to create a new generation of researchers and experts able to create the platform on which next-generation cancer therapy will be built. The consortium aims to train a cohort of 13 ESRs to subsequently act as leaders and ambassadors in the field.
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7-2013-ITN-ARGENT project, under grant agreement n°608163.
