What are the main objectives of the GLIOMATCH project?
“GLIOMATCH is a very ambitious and challenging project, but it also has a lot of potential,” explains Prof. Frederik De Smet.
The project will combine information and material collected from glioblastoma and paediatric high-grade brain tumours to analyse what is happening at tissue level, inside the tumour. The aim is to connect this information to the efficiency of different immunotherapies.
Prof. De Smet explains that these therapies try to reinitiate an attack of a patient’s own immune system against the tumour. This approach is still very novel in the context of brain tumours and has not yet worked very well for these cancers. GLIOMATCH therefore aims to better understand why this is the case and to identify improved metrics that can help researchers and clinicians assess how immunotherapy approaches may be improved.
How will GLIOMATCH’s novel MRI hub improve the treatment of brain tumours?
A major challenge in brain tumours is understanding how the tumour evolves over time. In many other cancers, it can be relatively straightforward to take a new tumour sample. In brain tumours, however, this is much more difficult, as brain surgery is a highly invasive procedure.
As Prof. De Smet explains, physicians usually follow up patients through non-invasive imaging, such as MRI or CT scans. GLIOMATCH aims to integrate information from these scans with knowledge of what is happening in the tumour tissue.
The project will develop what Prof. De Smet describes as “a novel MRI hub”. In the future, this hub could allow physicians to upload a scan of a new patient and gain a better understanding of what is happening in the tumour. Ultimately, the ambition is to help predict which immunotherapy may be most suitable for that patient.
How is the GLIOMATCH consortium structured?
GLIOMATCH is one of the Mission Cancer projects funded by the European Commission. The consortium brings together multiple areas of expertise needed to address the complexity of malignant brain tumours.
According to Prof. De Smet, the consortium includes eight clinical centres across Europe that are involved in the daily treatment of adult and paediatric brain tumour patients. These clinical partners are complemented by expert researchers, including teams at KU Leuven and the University of Maastricht.
The project also includes Aspect Analytics, an SME that supports the organisation and analysis of the large amounts of data collected in GLIOMATCH. Cancer Patients Europe is involved to help connect the project’s work to patients and to support the translation of findings towards patient communities and policy discussions.
Finally, accelopment supports the consortium with the administration and coordination of this complex European project.
Through this combination of clinical, scientific, data science, patient and project management expertise, GLIOMATCH aims to generate new insights into brain tumours and contribute to more personalised immunotherapy strategies for patients in the future.
Watch the video episode and discover the full GLIOMATCH: Explained series on our video page.
