ANGIOPREDICT is an FP7 research project working towards personalised medicine for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the developed world. Currently, the first line treatment for patients with mutations in Ras/Raf/ PI3K pathways who do not respond to anti-EGFR treatment is bevacizumab (bvz, Avastin®) in combination with chemotherapy. However, the treatment is not effective in all patients - which may result in some patients suffering related side effects, without benefit. It is universally agreed that the future use of Avastin® in mCRC (and other cancers) is likely to be greatly influenced by the availability of predictive biomarkers to allow selection of patients who will attain the greatest benefit. Neither predictive validated markers, nor associated companion diagnostics currently exist.

In ANGIOPREDICT, academic cancer biologists and industry-based biotechnology researchers will work together with clinicians to identify biomarkers to predict whether individual metastatic colorectal cancer patients will respond positively to Avastin® combination therapy. Diagnostic tests using these biomarkers will also be developed to provide clinicians with the means to predict patient treatment responses in the future.

Identifying patients who will not respond to Avastin® combination therapy will spare these patients from potential side effects of the treatment. It will also help to prevent relapse, as these patients may ultimately be directed towards alternative, potentially more effective therapies. Health care providers will be able to provide more focused and cost-effective care, because ineffective investment in Avastin® combination therapy will be avoided.

The underlying genomic mechanisms that determine whether or not a patient will respond to Avastin® combination therapy are currently unknown. ANGIOPREDICT aims to unravel these pathways.

The overall approach is as follows:

• ANGIOPREDICT partners will provide previously collected tissue samples from patients receiving Avastin® combination therapy or chemotherapy for genomic analysis. From this analysis, potential predictive biomarkers will be identified.
• The predictive ability of the identified potential biomarkers will then be validated using tissue samples from the AC-ANGIOPREDICT clinical trial, where patients will receive Avastin® combination therapy.
• Validated, predictive biomarkers will then be used to develop diagnostic tests that can be used by clinicians to identify which patients will benefit from Avastin® combination therapy.

Link to EU CORDIS Website