I was talking about a new initiative of the WIN Consortium which is a biorepository, a tumour bank, in which we are planning to collect samples for patients who undergo surgery to remove their lung cancer. Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the world yet there are no good technologies to detect it at an early stage. We do CAT scans but the CAT scans are not that specific. As of today we do not have any blood marker that can assist the CAT scan or complement the CAT scan to, again, early detect lung cancer. So most of the patients are diagnosed with advanced metastatic disease.
We are trying to change these figures, these numbers, by identifying the blood-borne markers that are associated with early disease. So far there has no success; there have been several studies that looked into this matter including the CancerSEEK project that was published in Science earlier this year. However, also this phenomenal project succeeded in identifying other solid tumours at an early stage but not lung cancer. So the idea is to collect samples from patients who undergo curative surgery for their cancer and then take a second sample that will be collected three months after surgery and then conduct multiple studies and see which markers are going down after the surgery, assuming that these markers are associated with the disease, with the cancer itself.

Later on, we can collect samples when the tumour recurs and then we can also analyse these samples and see if the original marker that initially went down is now going up again to be associated with the progress in the disease. That’s actually the idea.

For this, since lung cancer is heterogeneous, there are multiple types of the disease, you would need hundreds of patients. The only way to conduct such a trial and do it in a proper manner would be to use an organisation such as WIN and use the collaboration from all academic institutions from all over the world who participate in the programme.

What kind of samples will you be taking?

For each of the individuals who undergo surgery we will collect in addition to the blood sample we’ll take a sample from the tumour and a sample from the tumour-free, the normal area around the tumour, so we will be able to compare the blood parameters to the tumour parameters as well. But we want to use not archival specimens, we want to use and collect those specimens prospectively in multiple centres.

Is this collaboration effort international?

It should be international because there are multiple changes between different groups of patients, genetic changes between countries. So in order to make it more solid and more strong we are trying to convince our partners from all over the world to participate in the trial. I was happy that following my talk I talked to one of the surgeons and he complemented and supported the concept of BOOSTER to suggest that also the surgeons who actually need to invest some time and assist us in collecting those specimens are interested and they understand the significance of this question and agree to participate. This was Dr Harvey Pass from New York.

What does the timeline look like?

Well actually we discussed the project yesterday in the Directorate meeting and we hope to finish with all IP issues, all administrative issues, regulatory issues, in a matter of three months. The protocol is ready to go and in a matter of two or three months we’ll be able to send it around and ask for the partners to collaborate with us.

Is there anything you’d like to add regarding the trial?

We support and develop several projects in WIN. All of them are testing new technologies and new concepts in the management of patients with advanced metastatic disease. What we hope to do here is to decrease actually the number of patients who are now diagnosed with lung cancer. So the idea, if we succeed, is phenomenal – not to better control, not to let these patients live longer with a better quality of life, rather we hope to significantly decrease the number of patients who are diagnosed with the disease and this will have a significant impact all over the world. That’s the main significance, the main potential contribution of BOOSTER.