CONTICANET - CONnective TIssue CAncers NETwork to integrate European Experience in Adults and Children (FP6-LIFESCIHEALTH) (2006-02-01 - 2011-01-31) (»add to infobox)

Jean-Yves BLAY, Axel-Rainer HANAUSKE, Declan SODEN, Jacob VERWEIJ, Ian JUDSON, Axel LECESNE, Nadia ZAFFARONI, Fabienne HERMITTE, Christian AUCLAIR, Zvonimir RUDOLF, Arcadio GARCIA DE CASTRO, Patrick TRICOLI, Carlo Riccardo ROSSI, Patrick SCHÖFFSKI, Michel MARTY, Eric PAPON, Javier OLAIZ, Jean-Michel COINDRE, Olivier DELATTRE, Peter HOHENBERGER

UNIVERSITE CLAUDE BERNARD LYON 1 (FR716 - Rhône) (France), ALLGEMEINES KRANKENHAUS ST GEORG (DE600 - Hamburg) (Germany), UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK (IE025 - South-West (IRL)) (Ireland), ERASMUS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM ROTTERDAM (NL335 - Groot-Rijnmond) (Netherlands), INSTITUTE OF CANCER RESEARCH - ROYAL CANCER HOSPITAL (UKI11 - Inner London - West) (Great Britain), INSTITUT GUSTAVE ROUSSY (FR107 - Val-de-Marne) (France), ISTITUTO NAZIONALE PER LO STUDIO E LA CURA DEI TUMORI (ITC45 - Milano) (Italy), IPSOGEN SAS (FR824 - Bouches-du-Rhône) (France), ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE DE CACHAN (FR107 - Val-de-Marne) (France), INSTITUT OF ONCOLOGY LJUBLJANA (SI00E - Osrednjeslovenska) (Slovenia), PHARMA MAR SA (ES300 - Madrid) (Spain), SANOFI AVENTIS - SYNTHELABO GROUPE (FR101 - Paris) (France), UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA (ITD36 - Padova) (Italy), KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN (BE242 - Arr. Leuven) (Belgium), CENTRE HOSPITALIER-UNIVERSITAIRE ST LOUIS (FR101 - Paris) (France), ARTTIC SA (FR101 - Paris) (France), EZUS LYON 1 SA (FR716 - Rhône) (France), INSTITUT BERGONIE (FR612 - Gironde) (France), INSTITUT CURIE (FR101 - Paris) (France), RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG (DE125 - Heidelberg, Stadtkreis) (Germany)

Connective tissue cancers and more specifically sarcomas, GIST, aggressive fibromatosis and hamartomas, are uncommon cancers with an incidence below 2/100 000/year in the EU affecting children, young adults and adults. At a national level, the limited number of cases (about 7-10 000 in Europe each year) does notallow Europe to have a critical mass of researchers and the supporting environment to progress in disease understanding and management and have access to new drugs and treatments. Europe has proven with research made on GIST or through the EORTC-STBSG group that gathering workforces can achieve significant progress. CONTICANET will create the critical mass of key stakeholders to overcome the current difficulties in terms of lack of data and data fragmentation, mobility of researchers, heterogeneity of methodologies and legislations. CONTICANET will 1) start by providing the required environment for developing joint research activities through the development of standard operating procedures, distributed databases, tissue banks and harmonisation of research projects, then 2) provide the infrastructure to test several drug candidates and perform European wide clinical trials while implementing a federated research policy to 3) further lead to an integrated sustainable structure a European research foundation able to support integrated research actions and make available new treatments. Involving 20 partners major comprehensive cancer centres, academia and private companies over 5 years, CONTICANET will gather the critical mass of resources and knowledge in the understanding, diagnosis and management of connective tissue cancers, opening new therapeutic options. CONTICANET will spread excellence in several directions: enlarging the network with other academic and private organisations; developing relationship with EMEA, health authorities and insurances; supporting and collaborating with patients through advocacy groups or cancer leagues.

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