More than 50% of cancer patients develop pain before death: 80% can be treated with drugs, but 20% show a low response or have serious adverse effects. Although non-pharmacological interventions such as neurosurgical procedures have been tested, these alternatives are not a preferred option to treat cancer pain due to their high cost, risk, invasiveness and not always proven efficacy. PAINLESS addresses a core component of pain relief, by using an innovative, evidence-based approach. The objective is to adapt and implement a novel, cost-effective, home-based intervention based on neuromodulation to reduce pain and improve quality of life of cancer patients with chronic pain. On the assumption that treatment of chronic pain can benefit from research on the brain mechanisms of pain, we will first attempt to improve our understanding of the role of central pain modulation. The project will be organized in 3 studies: 1) A cohort, longitudinal study (n=450) to explore whether the biomarkers of central pain modulation mechanisms can be predictive of the future occurrence of chronic pain in cancer patients; 2) A cross-sectional study to characterize and stratify cancer patients with vs. without chronic pain (750 patients with the proposed biomarkers and taking into account a number of moderator variables); 3) A pilot study (n=450) to assess the feasibility an efficacy of at-home delivery of transcranial low intensity electric stimulation (tES) for the palliative care of cancer patients suffering from pain PAINLESS will develop a customized web portal to share knowledge and to improve management of the patients; perform techno-economic analyses and Health Technology Assessment of the solution; analyze the possibilities of implementation in different European healthcare systems and results exploitation; and undertake an ambitious dissemination and communication strategy. We will also propose a wide range of measures to ensure compliance with the highest ethical standars.

The 15-month coordination and support action “4.UNCAN.eu” will generate a strategic agenda to launch UNCAN.eu, a European initiative to UNderstand CANcer proposed by the Mission Board and the European Beating Cancer Plan. This research agenda will be built with the final aim of achieving a new breakthrough in cancer prevention and treatment that will contribute to saving European citizens’ lives and help ensuring an optimal quality of life to disease survivors. To reach a new level of understanding, UNCAN.eu will take advantage of recent advances in research data generation and data sciences. Reliable, high-quality cancer research data generated by experimental model analysis and collected from longitudinal follow-up of cancer patients will be shared and integrated at an unprecedented scale within a Federated Cancer Research data hub, in the context of the General Data Protection Regulation. This information will be used by relevant players in Europe and beyond to address urgent and essential scientific and medical challenges in cancer prevention, early diagnosis, treatment and survivorship, in males and females of various ages. These challenges, identified in close interaction with European patients and citizens, will be tackled through competitive, ambitious and innovative, cross-border and trans-disciplinary research programmes built in a problem-solving manner. The definition of challenges will integrate inequalities in cancer research across regions and member states in order to boost the research potential of less-developed regions in Europe. Players will be committed to open science principles, including FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) guiding principles for scientific data collection, management and stewardship. The new understanding gained from the collection and analysis of this wealth of data will apply secondarily to other diseases.

With Colorectal Cancer (CRC) being accountable for 12.4% of all deaths due to cancer, and with only 14% of EU citizens participating in screening programmes, there is an urgent need for accurate, non-invasive, cost-effective screening tests based on novel technologies and an increased awareness on the disease and its detection. Furthermore, personalized approaches for screening are needed, to consider genetic and other socioeconomic variables and environmental stressors that lead to different onsets of the disease. ONCOSCREEN responds to these challenges by developing a risk-based, population-level stratification methodology for CRC, to account for genetic prevalence, socio-economic status, and other factors. It complements this methodology by a) developing a set of novel, practical, and low-cost screening technologies with high sensitivity and specificity, b) leveraging AI to improve existing methodologies for CRC screening, allowing for the early detection of polyps and provision of a personalized risk status stratification, and c) providing a mobile app for self-monitoring and CRC awareness raising. Furthermore, ONCOSCREEN develops an Intelligent Analytics dashboard for policy makers facilitating effective policy making at regional and national levels. Through a multi-level campaign, the above-mentioned solutions are tested and validated. For the clinical solutions specifically, a clinical validation study has been planned with the participation of 4100 enrolled patients/citizens. To ensure the adoption of the developed solutions by the healthcare systems, their cost-effectiveness and financial viability will be assessed. The 48-months duration project will be implemented by a multidisciplinary consortium comprising of 38 partners, including technical solutions providers, hospitals, Ministries of Health as policy makers, legal and ethics experts, Insurance companies, involving actively end-users/citizens in all phases of implementation through targeted workshops. This action is part of the Cancer Mission cluster of projects on ‘Prevention, including Screening.

Millions of people in the EU are negatively affected by cancer, and cancer is one of the leading causes of death and morbidity in Europe (ecis.jrc.europa.eu). The PRIME-ROSE consortium will contribute to the Mission Cancer goal to optimise treatment and support quality of life of more than 3 million people by 2030. The PRIME-ROSE consortium envisions to support Mission Cancer through the following objectives: 1) increase access to optimised and affordable treatment interventions for cancer patients that prolong life and increase quality of life, 2) generate clinical evidence and evaluate effectiveness in Precision Cancer Medicine (PCM)-relevant and synthetically randomised, controlled academic investigator-initiated pragmatic clinical trials, and 3) work together across Europe with relevant experts to implement evidence-based PCM in routine practice and address inequalities in access. This consortium builds on the truly bottom-up, clinician-initiated family of DRUP-like innovative trials that provide broad access to precision medicine for cancer patients. This action is part of the Cancer Mission cluster of projects on ‘Diagnosis and treatment’.

PROSTAMET is an immersive Doctoral Network (DN), that aims to train the next generation of researchers tackling complex multifactorial diseases, including cancer, that are typically characterized by an outspoken inter- and intra-patient heterogeneity and that increasingly face our ageing society. Despite unprecedented technological advances to dissect disease into its smallest details, the translation into cost-effective and personalised treatment approaches is one of the timeliest challenges that face the scientific community and that require a specific transdisciplinary mindset and education. Focusing on prostate cancer as a key paradigm of such a complex disease and as one of European Health Union’s new focus areas for organised screening, PROSTAMET aims to bridge current gaps in translational research, capitalising on the underexplored clinical potential of altered lipid metabolism in cancer. Through a close collaboration among well-selected academic and non-academic partners with highly complementary expertise, PROSTAMET aims to set up a unique lipid-focused translational research pipeline from cutting-edge spatially-resolved molecular discovery, through validation in gold-standard models, all the way to innovative drug development. Through its modular and bidirectional nature with multiple entry points, this pipeline is expected to generate outputs at multiple levels of the drug development chain for sustainable downstream valorisation. Through a combination of high-level technological “hands-on” research, non-academic placements and courses/workshops on scientific and complementary “soft” skills facilitated by the academic/non-academic composition of the consortium, PROSTAMET’s ambition is to provide young researchers with a creative and holistic view on translational research along with strong transferable skills to prepare them to take up thriving careers in a transformative health care system focusing on personalised precision medicine.