Download The Urology Clinic of "Prof. Dr. Th. Burghele" Clinical Hospital

The Urology Clinic of "Prof. Dr. Th. Burghele" Clinical Hospital represents an
important research center, where two FP7 projects - EuroTARGET and Promark, an
international project CAGEKID (Genetics of Kidney Cancer) and other national
projects are conducted. In these projects are involved all the 6 members of the
Clinical
Staff,
and
also
other
doctors
working
in
hospital.
In all these research projects are used: Bruel & Kjaer 3535 Ultrasound device
equipped with transrectal transducer, biopty gun, four endoscopic operating rooms
fully equipped, 4 open, laparoscopic and robotic assisted surgery rooms, Pathology
laboratory equipment - Nikon microscope Eclipse E200, E600, Accu-Cut SRM
microtome SAKURA, thermostat SQ 50, IT equipment.
EuroTARGET Project
EuroTARGET study is a collaborative project of several doctors and researchers from
the Netherlands, England, Iceland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Romania
and Spain, which will take place over a period of five years (2010-2015). The purpose
of this study is to find better ways to predict how patients with metastatic kidney
cancer will respond to the treatment with most currently used drugs. In order to do
this, researchers sampled blood and tumor tissue from patients in search of
biomarkers (substances that can provide information about patient
status). Researchers will correlate these biomarkers with patient response to
treatment.
In recent years various drugs have become available for patients with metastatic
kidney cancer. These therapeutic agents - tyrosine kinase inhibitor, suppresses the
formation of new blood vessels in the tumor, necessary for its development, so that
tumor growth is slowed.
About 75% of patients benefit from these new drugs, while some patients will suffer
side
effects
that
will
require
dose
reduction
or
discontinuation.
At this point it is impossible to state accurately whether a patient will benefit from
therapy or will suffer side effects. The aim of the EuroTARGET study is to collect
information which will contribute to the rapid estimation of the benefit derived by
treating the patient. This will allow physicians to choose the optimal treatment for
each patient.The biomarkers used in this project represent variations in genetic
material (DNA) of patients that may allow the assessment of treatment
response. Researchers are also looking for proteins and other substances from the
tumor that can provide information about tumor sensitivity to a therapeutic agent.
Promark Romania
Promark project started in January 1, 2008 and lasts 60 months. The project is
funded by the European Community through the FP7. The project team met for the
first time at University College London in January 2008. Working groups were
established and tasks of each group were reviewed. A second meeting took place at
the DeCODE, Reykjavik, in August 2008.
The project main objective is to identify biomarkers of occurrence and progression of
prostate cancer.
The specific objectives are:
1. Harvesting large numbers of biological samples and obtaining clinical data for
research of prostate cancer biomarkers, in four European populations.
2. Testing the utility of genetic risk variants for prostate cancer as biomarkers of
progression,
severity
and
consequences
of
the
disease.
3. Elucidating the biological mechanisms that cause increased risk of prostate
cancer.
Project CAGEKID
CAGEKID project (CAncer GEnetics of KIDney) is developed by an international
scientific consortium coordinated by the Agency for Cancer Studies at Lyon (IARC)
for a period of three years.
Of all cancers occurring in adults, kidney cancer is 3% but its prevalence is higher in
some EU countries where it is the 10th as the incidence of cancer. 50% of diagnosed
patients survive more than 5 years, but there are large differences from one country
to another.
Most kidney cancers are renal cell carcinomas. Beside smoking, obesity and
hypertension there are not known any predisposing factors for this type of cancer.
Moreover, for renal carcinoma there aren’t biomarkers with clinical utility.
CAGEKID project methodology (CAncer GEnetics of KIDney) is based on advanced
techniques for analyzing DNA variation and gene expression based on sequencing
the entire human genome. These methods allow to study the molecular basis of
kidney cancer with possible validation of new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers
with clinical utility.
The project aims to make full comparative analysis of constitutional and tumor DNA
variation, gene expression analysis and methylation patterns at least 100 pairs of
normal tissue / tumor. Potential prognostic markers will be analised at, at least 2500
patients.
The role of „Prof. Dr. Th. Burghele” Urology Clinic is that, during the three years of
study, to recruit 150 cases of kidney cancer for which to make a complete
epidemiological, clinical and pathological profile, to collect a complete set of
samples biological (whole blood, normal and pathological kidney tissue, blade and
block for anatomopathological diagnosis).
Furthermore, the clinic role during the study includes biannual tracking of confirmed
patients both by passive methods (observation sheets, sheets cancer) and active
methods (medical letters).
Contact: [email protected]