PROspective VAlidation of Biomarkers in Ewing Sarcoma for personalised translational medicine (PROVABES)

Basic data for this project

Description

PROVABES is a joint proposal of the three leading European Ewing sarcoma study groups: EURO-EWING, the Italian Sarcoma Group (ISG) and the Spanish Sarcoma Group (GEIS). These groups have formed a consortium for collaborating with the leading experts on molecular, cellular and translational Ewing sarcoma (ES) research. Each of these scientists will contribute his or her unique expertise to the validation of prognostically relevant biomarkers of solid tumours. The University Hospital of Münster, Department of Pediatric Oncology which is also in the role of the coordinator, and Institute of Bioinformatics, developed the theoretical concepts and organized the trial network and sample basis for this study. The majority of European ES patients are treated within clinical trials under the auspices of the clinical trial groups cooperating in this consortium. Owing to multimodal treatment concepts, two-thirds of the patients with localised disease achieve sustained remission; still, approximately 30 % relapse. While clinical prognostic markers such as primary dissemination, tumour site, tumour size, patient`s age and histological response to chemotherapy are established and used for therapeutic stratification, little is known about biological factors that determine the risk of relapse or progression and thus might help to differentiate patients at risk from those eligible for less intense treatment.