Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is an unpredictable and potentially deadly condition and should be promptly treated with catheter ablation and medication, before irreversible and potentially fatal organ damage follows. Unfortunately, this combination of treatments does not prevent VT reoccurrence in 30-50% of VT patients and while they can undergo multiple invasive ablations, technical difficulties or refusal of the patient can lead to a lack of effective treatment options. A promising novel, non-invasive treatment option for VT is stereotactic arrhythmia radioablation (STAR). Besides being non-invasive, STAR can also be used to reach locations that are inaccessible for catheter ablation, which may potentially improve effectiveness of overall VT treatment. Small scale first in men/early phase trials have been performed for STAR, providing proof-of-concept for clinical safety and efficacy. However, patients with recurrent VT are not a homogenous group and each center deals with different inclusion criteria, imaging and/or target definition. Many questions remain and the available studies lack the power to clinically validate the approach and prepare for late stage phase III trials. The STOPSTORM consortium sets out to consolidate all current and future European efforts to clinically validate STAR treatment by merging all data in a validation cohort study, standardising pre-treatment and follow-up, in order to collect the data sets and statistical power needed to unanimously establish clinical safety, efficacy and benefit for STAR. The STOPSTORM consortium also sets out to refine protocols and guidelines, determine volumes of interest, define and model the optimal target region and target dose, also in relation to surrounding healthy tissues (i.e. organs at risk) and determine which patient population and underlying cardiopathies respond best to STAR. By doing so the STOPSTORM consortium paves the way to consensus and future late stage clinical trials for STAR.

AYAs face a distinct set of challenges, including increased risks of secondary cancers, cardiovascular diseases, infertility, and mental health issues like anxiety and depression. Oncology programs delivering care to AYAs provide survivors with individualised survivorship care plans at the end of treatment, to accompany follow-up with their primary care providers. However, adherence to these plans is often scarce, due to differences in AYA survivors' age, sex, cancer treatment received, and socioeconomical conditions. Knowledge and understanding of such factors and of related late effects and impacts on quality of life is fundamental to providing effective survivorship care. The ubiquitous use of mobile devices by AYAs offers an opportunity to increase knowledge and understanding of AYAs cancer survivors’ health status and behaviours, allowing the modelling of late effects and quality of life trajectories in the different age subgroups. Digital health interventions overcome many barriers to AYA participation in survivorship programs. LATE-AYA seeks to fill this gap by empowering AYAs to better manage their health and well-being post-cancer, by developing an AI-driven digital phenotyping platform for managing late effects (LE) of cancer treatment. The project will implement a holistic, non-invasive approach through digital tools such as smartphones and wearables to monitor physical, psychological, and social well-being. The project will focus on preventive health behaviours, psychological support, and social reintegration, providing personalized care through digital interventions. LATE-AYA will contribute to long-term quality of life improvements, facilitate early detection of LE, and provide data-driven insights on the impact of lifestyle choices on health outcomes. This project is supported by a diverse consortium of European institutions and will leverage the UNCAN.eu platform to share data and models, fostering wider collaboration across the EU. This action is part of the Cancer Mission cluster of projects on “Quality of life (AYA)”.

Pure accelerated radioisotope beams have been used for 50 years in fundamental physics R&D, e.g. for nuclear structure studies (pear shaped exotic nuclei, Nature 2013); CERN-ISOLDE plays a central role in developing accelerator technologies and fostering collaborative approaches to advance this field of isotope mass separation online. Our most recent contribution was the use of nanomaterial targets for more intense and reliable beam production, and laser ion sources for their purification (discovery of yet unknown 233Francium). Radioisotopes are widely used for functional imaging in medicine, based on 99mTechnetium or on 18Fluorine. This field is expected to rapidly expand, when coupling imaging with new cancer treatments, with isotopes emitting different type of radioactivity, e.g. alpha particles. This is shown with the recently introduced 223Radium chloride (Xofigo®) used as a treatment drug in advanced bone cancers. However, either shortage in the supply of 99mTechnetium or lack of access to new radioisotope with adequate properties is a severe treat to develop personalized treatment that combine functional imaging and therapy. Ovarian cancers have poor prognosis, are the second most frequent cancer for women and one of the deadliest. They are difficult to treat, because of possible presence of metastasis, and because this region is difficult to irradiate without collateral damages. MEDICIS-PROMED will train a new generation of scientists to develop systems for personalized Medicine combining functional imaging and treatments based on radioactive ion beam mass-separation. This will be done across a coherent intersectorial multidisciplinary network with world-leading scientists in their field. Subsystems for the development of new radiopharmaceuticals, of isotope mass separators at medical cyclotrons, and of mass separated 11Carbon for PET-aided hadron therapy will be specifically developed to treat the ovarian cancer.

Radiotherapy (RT) is a mainstay of modern cancer treatment. Conventionally, RT is delivered to the patient lying on a treatment couch, while a beam steering device (gantry) aims the radiation from any angle around the target. Positioning the patients in upright body posture (upRT) instead enables to orient the patient arbitrarily toward a fixed beam. This enables smaller facility footprint and reduced treatment cost, placing upRT in the core of the UN sustainable development goals, and opening global access to advanced treatment options: 80% of cancer patients live in countries which host only 5% of the world’s RT resources. Moreover, upRT improves patient comfort and is associated with anatomical and physiological advantages, such as reduced breathing motion. It therefore comes as no surprise that, with new upright patient positioning & imaging solutions entering the market, upRT is enjoying a surge in interest. Yet, key scientific questions remain, international guidelines for upRT are lacking, and existing RT workflows are geared to lying patients. As the first clinics adopt new upRT technologies, there is a global need for trained professionals in industry, clinics and academia, to reach the promised benefits for patient care. UPLIFT builds this next generation of experts by addressing key research questions related to: treatment planning, clinical workflow and equipment design. Leveraging latest upRT technology available through our world-class consortium, UPLIFT propels Europe to the forefront of the upRT paradigm shift. UPLIFT focuses on: Learning (through its academic and clinical centres of excellence); Innovation (through its leading industrial partners); Fellowship & Training (through an outstanding cross-sector programme of workshops, secondments & mentoring). Input from patient advocacy groups and an internationally renowned advisory board will maximise its impact. UPLIFT will revolutionize modern RT, making it more human, accessible and sustainable.