Consortium
Projects
Funding
Consortium
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The TRANSBIG consortium was launched in 2004 by BIG to promote international collaboration in translational research. It comprised 28 world-class institutions present in 11 countries and was managed by the BIG Headquarters.
This consortium was dedicated to:
- advancing individualised treatment for breast cancer patients
- integrating, strengthening and facilitating translational breast cancer research in Europe and internationally within the framework BIG
In 2010, the work of the TRANSBIG Consortium was again reviewed favourably by the European Commission’s
independent review, with the Consortium having achieved its objectives, planned milestones and deliverables to
date. The European Commission’s funding came to an end in February 2011.
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Projects
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The main project launched under TRANSBIG is the MINDACT trial. Sponsored and coordinated by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) MINDACT compares a genomic prognostic test (Mammaprint®) developed with micro-array technology to traditional clinical-pathological methods for assessing the risk of breast cancer recurring in women with lymph node negative or 1 to 3 node positive disease. It is expected that this will help physicians and patients make better decisions about who can safely avoid chemotherapy and its potential side effects.
TRANSBIG’s main achievements over the years:
- Launch and running of the MINDACT clinical trial, for which recruitment of 6600 patients was achieved in 2011
- International validation of the Agendia/Amsterdam 70-gene signature
- International validation of the Veridex/Rotterdam 76-gene signature in the same patient population
- Validation of the Genomic Grade signature in the same patient population
- Validation of the 70-gene signature in patients with 1 to 3 positive lymph nodes
- Validation of the 70-gene signature in patients aged 65 and older
- Validation of the 70-gene signature in patients with 4 to 9 positive lymph nodes
- Central Pathology Review work, including detailed review of the first 800 MINDACT patients
- Creation of the TRANSBIG/MINDACT Biobank
- Development of a protocol for Genomic Data Storage from the MINDACT trial
- Completion of the MINDACT Quality Assurance Programme
- Development of International guidelines for collection, processing, handling and shipment of fresh frozen and paraffin-embedded tumor samples and blood/ serum (published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology)
- Coordination of the TRANSBIG Traineeship programme
The TRANSBIG consortium, managed by the BIG Headquarters, will leave a lasting legacy in the form of a biological materials bank (“biobank”). Extremely valuable for translational research, this will allow researchers from around the world to access to genomic data and biospecimens. Moreover, many of the TRANSBIG committees and structures have been adapted to expand their expertise across BIG, benefitting the association in the longer term.
Funding
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The TRANSBIG Consortium received funding from the European Commission under Framework Programme VI for the overall management of TRANSBIG as a Network of Excellence, the validation research that preceded the launch of MINDACT, the coordination of MINDACT in different European countries, and work in specific areas such as that of TRANSBIG Proteomics Working Group.
TRANSBIG was also supported by industry partners and charities that acknowledged the importance of its work and contributed to the funding of the Consortium: Agendia, Novartis, F Hoffmann-La Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, Fondation contre le Cancer / Stichting tegen Kanker in Belgium, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Association Le Cancer du Sein - Parlons-en, the Jacqueline Seroussi Memorial Foundation, Susan G Komen for the Cure, the EBCC-Breast Cancer Working Group asbl/vzw, the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) and the UK Cancer Society.