LEGACy Press Release
CELAC and European Consortium for a Personalized Medicine Approach to Gastric Cancer (LEGACy) launched
On Thursday 10 January 2019, experts from nine countries gathered together in Valencia, Spain to launch the European Union (EU) funded project LEGACy. The project focusing on a personalized medicine approach in gastric cancer aims to improve diagnosis and treatment by using data obtained through extensive research in four EU countries and four countries within the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in both sexes worldwide. The disease is responsible for 783 000 deaths per year1. The 5-year survival rate of gastric cancer patients in western countries varies from an alarming 10% to 25%. Also, median overall survival rates for patients with advanced gastric cancer is only about 12 months2. Without doubt, gastric cancer prevention requires urgent interventions.
To respond to this need, partners from Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Germany, Mexico, The Netherlands, Paraguay, Portugal and Spain will rally together in order to design a cost-effective algorithm based the tumour biology knowledge. The collaborative research will analyse more than 3 thousand cases in total. The project receives funding by the Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020 and the budget is over 3,5 million EUR.
The project will bring new information about the different gastric cancer subgroups. The primary goal of the project is to improve gastric cancer outcomes by applying personalised medicine in CELAC and EU populations participating in the project through:
- implementation of a personalised medicine strategy at the first level of prevention
- improvement of early gastric cancer detection at the second level of prevention
- improvement of gastric cancer treatment through high-risk group identification
- analysis of regional variations in respect to gastric cancer between EU and CELAC populations
The EU-CELAC strategic partnership started in 2011 with a focus on Science and Research. After chronic diseases were identified as a shared priority, the EU narrowed its focus to cancer after input from CELAC. Under Horizon 2020, the EU is now funding translational collaborative cancer research between Europe and CELAC.