DISCERN project kick-off
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and partners across Europe have begun an ambitious new project that will incorporate large-scale cancer biorepositories and novel exposomics techniques to understand the causes of renal, pancreatic, and colorectal cancer in Europe. The project, Discovering the Causes of Three Poorly Understood Cancers in Europe (DISCERN), also aims to help explain the geographical distribution of these cancer types, including their high incidence in central and eastern Europe. The project is funded by a grant from the European Commission in the framework of the Horizon Europe Mission on Cancer. The DISCERN project will combine data from large-scale European biorepositories comprising population-based cohorts and tumour case series for each of the three cancer types. It will integrate state-of-the-art exposomics and proteomics techniques, as well as genomics technologies, to analyse both normal tissue and tumour tissue. The goal of DISCERN is to uncover novel causes for each of these three cancer types and to provide the critical evidence base required to develop new prevention strategies for these cancers in Europe.
The DISCERN kick-off meeting was held virtually on 12 January 2023, and the participants will meet in person in May 2023 in Barcelona, Spain.
The partners in the DISCERN project are IARC, Utrecht University (The Netherlands), Masaryk University (Czechia), the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona, Spain), Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE, France), Leiden University (The Netherlands), the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (Sweden), the University of Tartu (Estonia), the International Kidney Cancer Coalition (IKCC), Digestive Cancers Europe (DiCE), the University of Turin (Italy), the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO, Spain), Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL, Spain), Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine (NIOM, Poland), Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology (MSCNRIO, Poland), Neuromed Mediterranean Neurological Institute (Italy), UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Norway), Pancreatic Cancer Europe (PCE), Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (United Kingdom), and the University of Oxford (UOXF, United Kingdom).
About the project:
The aim of the DISCERN project is to identify the causes of three poorly understood cancers in Europe – renal, pancreatic, and colorectal cancer – and to help explain the geographical distribution of these cancer types, including their high incidence in central and eastern Europe. This will be achieved by combining data from large-scale European biorepositories comprising population-based cohorts and tumour case series for each of the three cancer types. DISCERN will integrate state-of-the-art exposomics and proteomics techniques, as well as genomics technologies, to analyse both normal tissue and tumour tissue. The goal of DISCERN is to uncover novel causes for each of these three cancer types and to provide the critical evidence base required to develop new prevention strategies for these cancers in Europe.
Renal, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers were responsible for approximately one fifth of the estimated 2.7 million new cancer cases and one quarter of the 1.26 million cancer deaths in the European Union (EU) in 2020. Because of demographic changes (such as population ageing and growth) and secular changes in the prevalence of risk factors, the global burden of cancer is predicted to increase by approximately 47% over the next 20 years, and pancreatic cancer is expected to become the third most common cause of cancer death in Europe by 2025. Despite improvements in cancer diagnosis and treatment, survival rates have not improved substantially for these three cancer types.
For unknown reasons, the highest rates of these three cancer types tend to occur in central Europe and the Baltic region. In particular, the highest incidence rates for renal cancer in the world for both men and women are observed in Czechia, Lithuania, and Estonia. For pancreatic cancer, a similar cluster is seen in central Europe, and the highest incidence rates are observed in Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia. For colorectal cancer, the highest incidence rates are observed in Hungary and Slovakia, and parts of western Europe also have high incidence rates, particularly the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, and Norway.
DISCERN has five core objectives, which will be achieved through eight Work Packages:
- Establish a biorepository comprising extensive case series from across Europe with normal tissue and tumour tissue, as well as a consortium of European prospective cohorts with pre-diagnostic blood samples and extensive exposome data (lifestyle, environment, behavioural).
- Discover novel risk factors and causal pathways for renal, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers by assessing the exposome and proteome across prospective cohorts.
- Identify exogenous and endogenous factors that promote the growth of pre-initiated cells in normal tissues, and elucidate their cellular targets.
- Exploit human organoids and stem cell models to identify the biological mechanisms through which the identified cancer risk factors promote carcinogenesis.
- Disseminate these findings to citizens, patients, and relevant stakeholders to guide public health policy, with the long-term aim of reducing the burden of these lethal cancers in Europe.
Source: IARC
