The Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ) is a joint institution of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), University Hospital Heidelberg (UKHD) and the University of Heidelberg (Uni HD).
Remissions and progression of cancer following intensive radiotherapy or chemotherapy are the most urgent problem facing pediatric oncology today. Cancer comes back in around a quarter of cases and then often no longer responds to the usual treatment methods. This is why the KiTZ researchers launched the INFORM register trial in 2015 to find molecular targets in children with relapsed cancer that could unlock new treatment options. Today, nearly 60 centers in Germany are involved in the project, along with ten other European countries and Israel.
The procedure: pediatric oncologists send samples from their patients to the KiTZ in Heidelberg, where they are subjected to molecular analysis in Europe’s biggest unit for genome and protein analyses, which belongs to the DKFZ. The data are then clinically evaluated by experts, including physicians at the UKHD, and used to inform therapy decisions during a weekly video conference attended by physicians and researchers from several European countries.
So far, the study team has analyzed the genomes of tumors from more than 1,300 patients. In many cases, a new starting point for molecular targeted therapy is identified; in a few cases, a hereditary form of the tumor or the precise tumor form has been diagnosed based on the genome analysis. Increasingly, patients are also receiving therapy tailored to their individual tumor profile, and some patients can be assigned to a suitable clinical trial. “We are delighted with this international recognition,” says KiTZ researcher and pediatric oncologist Cornelis van Tilburg, who will present the latest trial results at the ASCO Conference 2020 on behalf of the INFORM team. “It shows that with INFORM we have created a unique infrastructure for personalized cancer treatment in children.” The study was also selected as a highlight presentation during the Presidential Select Symposium at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) earlier this year.
The researchers aim to open up individual tumor analyses for as many children as possible, thereby offering them a chance of a potentially life-saving therapy, for instance within innovative clinical trials. KiTZ director Olaf Witt is pediatric oncologist at University Hospital Heidelberg and head of the DKFZ’s clinical cooperation unit for pediatric oncology. He is the coordinator of the INFORM registry study. “Our vision for the future is to find a customized therapy for every type of tumor.”
- Further information about INFORM: www.kitz-heidelberg.de/en/for-physicians/clinical-studies/molecular-diagnostics-studies/inform
- Donate to INFORM: www.kitz-heidelberg.de/inform/
