Human ECM-based platform for anti-cancer drug testing - CARES (CAncer dRug tESting)

With 2 million cancer-related deaths and an annual cost of €100 billion, cancer constitutes a major European challenge. Cancertreatments have considerably improved over the last decades, however, the success rate of new anti-cancer drugs in clinical trialsremains frustratingly low, limiting the opportunities for fast and accurate development of innovative targeted cancer therapies. Ourvision is to provide a bold and innovative technology that recapitulates the active part played by the human tumourmicroenvironment, which has crucial roles in regulating tumour initiation, propagation, and progression, through the dynamiccrosstalk between the tumour cells and the extracellular matrix. CARES combines leading academic and non-academic experts in thefields of matrix biology, biomaterials, microfluidics and cancer research to establish an accurate tool to assess cancer cell responses toa variety of anti-cancer drugs. As a proof-of-concept, we will use breast cancer cells as a model system, with the perspective ofextending the system to other cancers. Our final goal is to deliver a novel and user-friendly platform that, by resembling the humantumour microenvironment in early and advanced cancer stages, can predict, with unprecedented accuracy, the response of tumourcells to anti-cancer therapies in vivo. This will facilitate development and testing of new drugs and narrow the gap betweentranslational cancer research and targeted cancer treatment, with a significant impact on society and the economy. The ambitiousscientific goal will provide the background for intense trans-sectoral and interdisciplinary training of young scientists, who will beprovided with an excellent translational research portfolio, allowing them to succeed both in academia and industry.