EUELC project: a multi-centre, multipurpose study to investigate early stage NSCLC, and to establish a biobank for ongoing collaboration.
The European Early Lung Cancer (EUELC) project aims to determine if specific genetic alterations occurring in lung carcinogenesis are detectable in the respiratory epithelium. In order to pursue this objective, nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with a very high risk of developing progressive lung cancer were recruited from 12 centres in eight European countries: France, Germany, southern Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK. In addition, NSCLC patients were followed up every 6 months for 36 months. A European Bronchial Tissue Bank was set up at the University of Liverpool (Liverpool, UK) to optimise the use of biological specimens. The molecular-pathological investigations were subdivided into specific work packages that were delivered by EUELC Partners. The work packages encompassed mutational analysis, genetic instability, methylation profiling, expression profiling utilising immunohistochemistry and chip-based technologies, as well as in-depth analysis of FHIT and RARbeta genes, the telomerase catalytic subunit hTERT and genotyping of susceptibility genes in specific pathways. The EUELC project engendered a tremendous collaborative effort, and it enabled the EUELC Partners to establish protocols for assessing molecular biomarkers in early lung cancer with the view to using such biomarkers for early diagnosis and as intermediate end-points in future chemopreventive programmes.
Field
J K
JK
Roy Castle Lung Cancer Research Programme, Cancer Research Centre, University of Liverpool, 200 London Road, Liverpool, L3 9TA, UK. J.K.Field@liv.ac.uk
Liloglou
T
T
Niaz
A
A
Bryan
J
J
Gosney
J R
JR
Giles
T
T
Brambilla
C
C
Brambilla
E
E
Vesin
A
A
Timsit
J-F
JF
Hainaut
P
P
Martinet
Y
Y
Vignaud
J M
JM
Thunnissen
F B
FB
Prinsen
C
C
Snijders
P J
PJ
Smit
E F
EF
Sozzi
G
G
Roz
L
L
Risch
A
A
Becker
H D
HD
Elborn
J S
JS
Magee
N D
ND
Montuenga
L M
LM
Pajares
M J
MJ
Lozano
M D
MD
O'Byrne
K J
KJ
Harrison
D J
DJ
Niklinski
J
J
Cassidy
A
A
D000368:Aged; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D004848:Epithelium / Q000378:metabolism; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D018168:Receptors, Retinoic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism
D018168:Receptors, Retinoic Acid; C082925:retinoic acid receptor beta; C509186:TERT protein, human; D019098:Telomerase