Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Europe with an expected increase of about 25% by 2035. A wide and unacceptable variability in terms of access to research, innovation and quality care exists between and within countries. Possible solutions are an increase in knowledge by funding research, and a more equitable transfer of what we already know to everyone. Comprehensive Cancer Centers and Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks may be the core of CCIs that deliver quality care and provide resources to improve and integrate care, research and education. Data already available confirm that the level of "CCI maturity" in Member States is widely different, from some countries lacking CCIs completely. A European initiative, implemented in all Member States, based on a capacity building programme (CBP), will help reduce inequalities, in the context of other actions ongoing, such as CRANE, JANE and UNCAN. CBP is a complex intervention that requires multiple and integrated actions delivered to all the relevant stakeholders. CBP will be designed with an inclusive approach, tailored to the baseline status, capable of creating a change and improvement in research and care, with greater integration between them, supported by an education programme. It will operate at various levels: Individuals, Institutions and Systems. The CSA will implement the following steps: define CCI Maturity Model including quality indicators; profile the CCIs in each MS and a few ACs in terms of CCI presence and levels of maturity; design tailored CBP interventions, giving priority to MSs without any CCI; deliver online training courses open to teams in all MSs and ACs, implement targeted onsite interventions; scale up and sustain development; disseminate, exploit and report results. The CSA will maximize impact by bridging with the work of ongoing EU cancer research projects. National focal points will be key informants in making the links between the CSA, the EC and MSs.

Cancer remains the leading cause of disease-related death in children. For the ~25% of children who experience relapses of their malignant solid tumors, usually after very intensive first-line therapy, curative treatment options are scarce. Preclinical drug testing to identify promising treatment options that match the molecular make-up of the tumor is hampered by the facts that i) molecular genetic data on pediatric solid tumors from relapsed patients and thus our understanding of tumor evolution and therapy resistance are very limited to date and ii) for many of the high-risk entities no appropriate and molecularly well characterized patient-derived models and/or genetic mouse models are currently available. Thus, quality-assured upfront preclinical testing of novel molecularly targeted compounds in a (saturated) repertoire of well-characterized models will establish the basis to increase therapeutic successes of these drugs in children with solid malignancies. Since these tumors are overall genetically much less complex than their adult counterparts, it is anticipated that it will be easier to identify powerful predictive biomarkers to allow for accurate matching of targets and drugs. To address this high, as yet unmet clinical need, we have formed the ITCC-P4 consortium consisting of academic and commercial partners from 8 European countries and covering the full spectrum of qualifications needed for quality-assured preclinical drug development including expertise in patient derived models, histopathology, in vivo pharmacology, bioinformatics and data management, centralized testing capabilities, medical expertise regarding the entities in question, regulatory knowledge, and project management of large consortia. With this consortium in a public-private partnership with the participating pharma companies we strongly believe to be ideally positioned to greatly expedite the development of more precise and efficacious drugs for children with malignant solid tumors

The Beyond 1 Million Genomes (B1MG) consortium will establish the support and coordination structure for the European 1+ Million Genomes initiative (1+MG), which is based upon the commitment of 20 European Member States and Norway that have signed the Declaration ‘Towards access to at least 1 million sequenced genomes in the EU by 2022’. Collectively, these countries have committed to establish a cross-border federated network of national genome collections associated with phenotypic data, consented for advancing health and medicine practices across Europe. Europe is uniquely placed to take on this challenge and position itself as a global leader in this field. B1MG will go ‘beyond’ the 1M genome target and ‘beyond’ the 20 signatory countries. The project will collaborate with an array of international initiatives and consult a range of stakeholders to support the creation of a pan-European genome-based health data infrastructure, encompassing data quality and exchange standards, access protocols and legal guidance. Recommendations will be translated to a B1MG maturity level model that provides concrete guidance on the steps required to implement personalised medicine, a healthcare approach that takes into account a person’s genetic make-up, at local, regional and national-scale. Personalised medicine is expected to bring significant socio-economic benefits, including more efficient national health systems. Faster and more accurate diagnosis, the development of pharmacogenomics and advancement of preventative medicine will lead to better health, quality of life of patients and increased life expectancy. This will be captured in a methodology for economic evaluation, forming the basis of future business-cases for implementation in the health sector.