Download DKTK - German Cancer Research Center

German Cancer Consortium (DKTK)
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
69120 Heidelberg
Germany
Phone: +49 6221 42 2254
Fax:
+49 6221 42 2968
Email:[email protected]
dkfz.de/en/dktk
German Cancer Consortium
Core Center Heidelberg
German Cancer Consortium
Core center Heidelberg
Partners Against Cancer
The German
Cancer Consortium (DKTK)
Cancer: a Major Challenge
It is an exciting time for cancer research: increasingly,
discoveries are being successfully translated from the laboratory into the clinic. This requires the type of close collaboration between scientists and physicians that is already being
successfully implemented at the National Center for Tumor
Diseases (NCT) in Heidelberg. Through the German Cancer
Consortium (DKTK), we are expanding this exceptional collaboration between research and clinical applications nationwide. The idea of the consortium was brought about through
an initiative of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, the participating German federal states, the German
Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and the German
Cancer Aid. In October 2012, the DKTK was finally constituted.
For all partners, and the DKFZ in particular, this offers the
unique opportunity to cooperate on a long-term basis with
some of the strongest German partners in university cancer
medicine. We are convinced that this will bring about permanent improvement in the treatment of cancer patients.
Professor Dr Dr h.c. OTMAR D. WIESTLER
Chairman of the
German Cancer Research Center as well as
Spokesman of the German Cancer Consortium
In industrial nations, cancer is the secondmost common cause of death. Primarily due
to the demographic change, the number of
patients newly diagnosed with cancer will
further increase.
According to data from the Robert-KochInstitute, more than 477,000 people develop
cancer in Germany each year. About half
of these patients die. In the last years the
incidences of cancer in men increased by 21
percent, 14 in women. Cancer is currently
responsible for every fifth death in Germany.
Cancer Treatment is Becoming Increasingly
Individualized
Cancer is a genetic disease. Over the last
two decades research has provided insights
into the underlying genetic alterations.
Moreover, we understand much better now
how tumor cells can escape the immune
system and learn to become metastatic. Yet,
for many tumors successful treatment
remains a challenge: Every patient has a
tumor with specific molecular characteristics, different from the tumor of another
patient, making one treatment for all impossible.
This has changed how some tumors are
being treated: Drugs and antibodies were
developed that can precisely attack tumors;
tumor tissue is analysed biologically and
molecularly so that the treatment with the
greatest chance of success can be recommended for the individual patient. At the
same time surgical oncology and radiation
improved in preciseness: more than ever
before, surgeons know how much tumor
tissue to remove in order to preserve the integrity of an organ’s functions; radiotherapy
is planned in a way that spares surrounding
healthy tissues to the greatest extent possible. Yet, there are many tumors were targeted therapies still need to be developed.
Prevention and Early Detection Help Avert
Cancer
Extensive and expensive treatments are
necessary once cancer has taken hold. They
require a collaboration between several
medical disciplines.
Better than having to treat the disease,
however, would be to stop it from developing in the first place. In fact, some tumors
can already be prevented. Estimates indicate
that every second or third tumor could be
avoided through better and systematic exploitation of prevention and early detection.
With the German Cancer Consortium
we are ready to take up the challenge.
The German
Cancer Consortium
Central Platforms
Combine Forces
Seven Programs to
Fight Cancer
Successful cancer research requires extensive exchange between many disciplines.
High-quality cancer research in the USA, for
example, often takes place at big centers
with more than 10,000 employees. The
DKTK aims to build such a network over the
long term by linking the German Cancer
Research Center in Heidelberg with some
of the strongest university hospitals in Germany. Currently 20 institutes at eight partner sites are collaborating in the DKTK.
Five research platforms support the collaboration between the partners. These form
the joint infrastructure of the consortium
and ensure high standards of quality. Common rules of evaluating data make all findings of the partners comparable.
Effective cancer research continuously
requires learning how new discoveries from
basic research can be translated into prevention, diagnostics and treatment of the
disease. To achieve this, the DKTK has so far
brought together more than 420 physicians,
scientists and their research groups, united
by the common “translational” strategy.
The Clinical Communication Platform rests
at the core of these infrastructures. Designed to help recruit patients for studies at
all partner sites, it is the hub for innovative
clinical trials within the consortium.
The platforms GMP and Cores Services,
Drug Development and Preclinical Models
support the sharing of technologies. Individual partner sites offer their infrastructures
as services to the partners. The School of
Oncology provides a training in cancer research to young physicians with experience
in treatment. Scientists are further acquainted with the aims and potential of translational research.
To promote the implementation of this
translational strategy in research, we have
developed seven research programs to
which all partner sites contribute:
Oncogenic Pathways analyzes how aberrations in molecular signaling pathways can
cause cancer, foster the progression of the
disease and how these pathways can be
blocked. Molecular Diagnostics deals with
new ways to identify tumors and diagnose
which type of tumor has caused the
disease. New tumor markers can be utilized
for personalized cancer therapy. Cancer
genome sequencing plays a prominent role
in this program. Cancer Immunology and
Immunotherapy shall help to find out how
the patients‘ own immune system affects
cancer development, and how it can be used
to fight the disease with targeted cancer
immunotherapies. Stem Cells in Oncology
shall identify and characterize cancer stem
cells that are responsible for relapses and
tumor progression. Based on this knowledge
new strategies to destroy cancer stem cells
will be developed. Radiation Oncology and
Imaging aims at developing precise and
more powerful visualization and irradiation
technologies. Treatment Resistance deals
with how tumors evade current therapies.
The results will help develop new strategies
to overcome and prevent resistance. Cancer
Prevention, Early Detection, and Outcomes
is the program with which tumors shall be
detected at a stage as early as possible, or
the development averted straight from the
beginning.
DKTK BERLIN
Charité Comprehensive Cancer Center,
Berlin
PROF. DR. REINHOLD SCHÄFER
DKTK ESSEN/DUSSELDORF
Westdeutsches Tumorzentrum
of the University Hospital Essen,
Heinrich Heine-University Düsseldorf
PROF. DR. MARTIN SCHULER
DKTK DRESDEN
Medical Faculty and University Hopsital Carl
Gustav Carus, Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular
Cell Biology and Genetics, Helmholtz Research
Center Dresden-Rossendorf
PROF. DR. MICHAEL BAUMANN
DKTK FRANKFURT/MAINZ
University Cancer Center Frankfurt, Goethe-University
Frankfurt, Georg-Speyer-Haus, Frankfurt, Krankenhaus
Nordwest, Frankfurt, University Medical Center, Mainz
PROF. DR. HUBERT SERVE
DKFZ HEIDELBERG (Core Center of the DKTK)
With Heidelberg University Medical School, National Center for
Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg; Associated Partners: Paul-Ehrlich-Institute, Langen, University of Cologne
Foundation DKTK
at the German
Cancer Research
Center
in Heidelberg
PROF. DR. DR. h.c. OTMAR D. WIESTLER, PROF. DR. JOSEF PUCHTA
PROF. DR. CHRISTOF VON KALLE
DKTK TUBINGEN
Faculty of Medicine and University
Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of
Tübingen, Fakulty of Life Science,
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
PROF. DR. KLAUS SCHULZE-OSTHOFF
DKTK FREIBURG
University Medical Center of the AlbertLudwigs-University Freiburg, MaxPlanck-Institute of Immunobiology,
Freiburg
DKTK MUNICH
Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich,
Technische Universität München
PROF. DR. WOLFGANG HIDDEMANN
PROF. DR. CHRISTOPH PETERS
German Cancer Consortium
Core Center Heidelberg