Projects funded under the EU Cancer Mission are being grouped into “clusters” so teams working on similar topics can share methods and coordinate joint activities.
The EU Cancer Mission team said it spoke to two project coordinators working on prevention and early detection: Professor Klaus Pantel, who coordinates PANCAID in the Screening cluster, and Dr Marius Geantă, who coordinates 4P-CAN in the Implementation Research cluster.
PANCAID is working on early detection of pancreatic cancer using blood-based biomarkers, which are measurable biological signals in the blood, the European Commission reported on Monday.
Pantel said taking part in the cluster helped his team compare different ways of detecting cancer being used by other projects.
Projects in the cluster cover different cancer types and technologies, including “liquid biopsies” (tests that look for cancer-related material in blood samples) and imaging-based screening.
Testing prevention in real-world settings
4P-CAN is focused on reducing preventable cancer risk factors and inequalities through real-world implementation, including work in a “Living Lab” in Lerești, Romania.
Geantă said the cluster linked the Cancer Mission’s objectives with place-based action and helped connect the project’s work — including the use of network analysis to study social influence and behaviour change — with expertise in other countries.
Both coordinators pointed to practical issues that clusters allow projects to tackle together, including data protection requirements and administrative workload that can delay research, according to the statement.
Pantel cited the European Liquid Biopsy Society as an example of how collaboration can continue after an EU-funded project ends, including through a small annual membership fee, with the network growing from 39 to 101 institutions, it added.
