Genomics plays an emerging role in clinical and public health research. Cancer is strongly driven by genomic modifications, and wide-profiling of these modifications with new technological approaches has become a major asset for (early) diagnosis, prognosis and therapy in regard to personalised medicine. The CAN.HEAL consortium recognises that prevention, diagnosis and treatment should be approached in a concerted way for optimal benefit of patients and citizens. In the clinical arm in our project, responding to the ‘Cancer Diagnostic and Treatment for All’, we focus on applying ‘next generation sequencing’ technology and identify implementation paths to extend the application of genetic profiling of patients and tumour cells in a way that EU Cancer Centres 1°) could take advantage of national initiatives to structure omics use in patient care to allow harmonized data interpretation and facilitated treatment decisions, 2°) could better share their data allowing to apply the same or similar diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to patients with comparable cancer profiles across the EU, thus improving equity, and 3°) take up the molecular tumour profiling biomarkers that estimate cancer predisposition to allow better counselling of family members regarding cancer risk. In the arm on ‘Genomics for Public Health’, the application of novel insights on estimating cancer risks in healthy populations by polygenic risk score analysis within population-wide interventions as well as strategies of remote genetic counselling and telegenetics will be further developed. Current genetic screening interventions such as the non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for trisomy can be direct sources for incidental findings on cancer status of the mother while also attention is given to implementing genomic profiling in paediatric cancers. Finally, we wish to set the framework for integrating and aligning the Genome of Europe biobanking initiative into public health genomics for cancer. We will further deepen the ethical and legal consents towards access to medical information and develop training tools on oncogenomics at large. Capacity building exercises will be performed in several countries. We will build on distinct use cases towards developing an integrated approach to improve access of individuals and cancer patients and survivors to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through personalised medicine.
CAN.HEAL consortium is funded by the European Commission.
This is a framework for making genetic phenotypic and clinical data from patients useful in clinical settings, playing the role of a knowledge hub for the consortium. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for clinical, omics, and image data exchange in clinical settings are vital to ensure seamless integration and interoperability across diverse types of health-related information. These SOPs provide guidelines and protocols for exchanging clinical, genomics (omics), and medical imaging data while prioritizing patient privacy, data security, and regulatory compliance. Here's a general summary of key components:
- Multimodal Data Standardization
- Privacy and Security Protocols
- Consent Management
- Data Mapping and Integration
- Data Governance and Oversight
- Quality Assurance and Validation
- Audit Trails and Logging
- Error Handling and Resolution
- Interoperability Testing
- Continuous Improvement
These SOPs serve as a foundation for integrating clinical, omics, and image data, fostering collaboration among healthcare providers, researchers, and institutions, ultimately contributing to improved patient care, personalized medicine, and advancements in medical research. Below the SOPs for each type of data are presented:
- The SOPS for clinical data exchange,
- The SOPS for image data exchange,
- The SOPS for omics data exchange.