TRANSCAN-3 Joint Call (JTC 2022)

TRANSCAN-3 aims at promoting highly innovative and ambitious collaborative projects in translational cancer research at European and international level.

TRANSCAN-3 Joint Call (JTC 2022) 

“Novel translational approaches to tackle the challenges of hard-to-treat cancers from early diagnosis to therapy”

Subsidy: Country/region dependent

Deadline: Pre-proposal: Expired,  Full-proposal: 15 December 2022

Consortium: Transnational research consortium with min. 3 and max. of 6 eligible partners from at least 3 different countries participating in the call.

Scope: Proposals will have to cover at least one of the undermentioned aims or sub-aims:

Aim 1: Identification/validation of novel early diagnostic approaches.

Early detection and diagnosis (ED&D) research seeks to detect and diagnose consequential precancerous changes and cancer at the earliest possible point at which an effective intervention might be made, reducing the burden of late-stage disease. Any of the areas identified below can be eligible for funding:

• • • • Identification and validation of novel biomarkers/signatures for HTTC, to better understand disease trajectory of very early/pre-cancerous lesions and help patient stratification in terms of risk, diagnosis/prognosis, response to treatment;
      • Non-confirmatory clinical trials of ED&D technologies or approaches, in particular data and computation-driven approaches.

Aim 2: Identification/validation of novel therapeutic approaches.

Although ED&D may significantly reduce the disease burden, HTTC are often characterised by an intrinsic resistance to available treatments. Therefore, it is of foremost importance to understand the biological processes that make these cancers “hard to treat”, and consequently to elaborate more effective therapeutic strategies, also to improve the patients’ quality of life. We welcome proposals aimed at:

• • • • Identification and validation of novel therapeutical targets, based on better insights on resistance mechanisms, tumour heterogeneity, cellular plasticity, tumour microenvironment, immune responses, metastatic process, tumour dormancy. Novel targets should be evaluated in translational studies with regard to their impact on treatment efficacy and patient benefits. Any in-vitro model systems must closely relate to the human disease.
      • Development of novel therapeutics/therapeutic approaches, through phase I and II clinical trials investigating combinations of available treatments, e.g. targeting multiple pathways, including immune/inflammatory, neoangiogenic and proliferative pathways, new therapeutics, new administration schemes, nutritional support, and other measures to maximise patient outcome and quality of life.

Aim 3: Development of novel drug delivery strategies.

The overarching challenge associated with effective treatment of any cancer is to minimize undesired effects while maximizing therapeutic benefits. For HTTC two additional issues arise: (i) traditional targeted drug delivery strategies suffer from limited capacity of the delivery vehicles preventing sufficient drugs reaching the cancer site which restricts the efficacy of treatment; and (ii) to access the tumour the drug needs to cross endogenous barriers, such as the blood brain barrier and tissue stroma. Therefore, we welcome proposals that aim at developing novel drug delivery systems for HTTC by:

• • • • achieving site-specific targeting; and/or
      • controlling release rate.

Participating countries are: Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and Taiwan

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