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FORSTERK-Forsterkningsmidler

Enhancing the impact of RESCUER on the activity of the Norwegian National Breast Cancer Network

Awarded: NOK 1.0 mill.

RESCUER gathers interdisciplinary expertise in the fields of surgery, pathology, oncology, molecular biology, bioinformatics, philosophy, mathematics and statistics. The RESCUER Consortium includes a multidisciplinary combination of partners –clinical, scientific, technical, industry– that correspondingly express diverse and multi-faceted exploitation interests, aimed at bringing results to actual use in several different areas, generating wider impact, within and beyond the core project objectives. This is achieved through ntegrating multiple clinical trials with time point data (clinical, imaging, omics, and NGS) from unprecedented many countries aiming to answer our clinical questions; Applying for the first time organoid and primary cultures of breast tumors for drug screens ex vivo to complement mouse xenograft tumor models; and Developing mathematical models and statistical learners to predict treatment response at individual patient level and test many new combinatorically treatment modalities, which will be validated in a co-clinical trial setting in parallel with mouse models and ex vivo cultures.

The project increased the impact of Horizon 2020 projects on research, in the following way: Allowed to connect the RERSCUER project to the Scientia fellow program and through this extend to other partners at Akershus University Hospital and outside Europe- the lab of Pascal Duijf in Brisbane, Australia. The current extension increased the impact of the RESCUER grant on research, facilitated projects building on the infrastructure and expertise developed in RESCUER, such as establishment of organoid cultures at Akershus University Hsopital and Vestre Viken. The ultimate aim was to translate herein produced scientific results into patient care together with our clinical collaborators in these hopsitals. Given the subgroups of patients with unmet clinical needs and the utmost importance of novel systems medicine methodology for gaining improved understanding on the complex molecular mechanisms behind treatment response, the relevance of this project is apparent. This will have further implications for the newly established projects, such as the SFF integreat, where we will build on the established mathematical models to provide important knowledge related to improving the health of cancer treatment survivors. The results will form the basis for new intervention that can reduce social inequalities.

The general objective of the EU project is to discover effective treatment combinations for individual/subgroups of breast cancer patients through the assessment and validation in vivo, in vitro, and in silico of mechanisms of treatment resistance at cellular/sub-cellular level. The add-on funding will be used to apply the results to other ongoing clinical trials in Norway to identify the physiological characteristics of non-responders vs. responders and to suggest clinically effective personalized drugs combinations. The current project is coordinated by University of Oslo, who receives 16% of the RESCUER funding, with a total budget of 6 mill euro. In addition, Oslo University Hospital (OUS) is also a partner in RESCUER and receives another 16% of the funding. The current FORSTERK project aims to extend the participation by other researchers in Norway who has expertise and interest in the main topics of RESCUER, and extend the research questions to new areas, building on the methodology and infrastructure developed in RESCUER.

Funding scheme:

FORSTERK-Forsterkningsmidler

Funding Sources