Cross-discipline
Cross-discipline

Imaging

Description

The Imaging Group combines radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and scientists interested in medical imaging. Medical imaging is a key component of clinical trials in oncology for patient selection and stratification, workflow management, planning therapy, monitoring response (including in vivo pharmaco-dynamic and -kinetic drug behavior), and follow-up. EORTC’s multidisciplinary imaging research promotes the scientific and clinical value of imaging across modalities by spearheading advanced techniques including translatable quantitative biomarkers, radiomic analyses, and artificial intelligence to interrogate biologically-driven questions. Specialist interests also include successful delivery of immunotherapy and image-guided treatment (theranostics).

The Imaging Group aims to conduct trials dedicated to optimizing and evaluating new imaging approaches; embed imaging-oriented trials as side-trials in trials conducted by the Disease-Oriented Groups; provide imaging-related advice during the design of clinical trials and perform centralized read-out of imaging data. These aims are achieved through expertise across all relevant imaging disciplines with direct links to EORTC’s disease-oriented groups. The group has active ties to major scientific societies (EANM, ESR, ESTRO, …).

Main Achievements

  • Hosted virtual plenary meetings featuring keynote lectures from world-renowned experts. The autumn theme focused on Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) theranostics with FAP inhibitors (FAPI), a rapidly emerging pan-tumoral target. The spring meeting was on European multi-site collaborations regarding imaging in glioma (GliMR consortium) and imaging standardisation in kidney disease (Parenchima project).
  • Established new collaboration with PINTAD (Pharma Imaging Network for Therapeutics and Diagnostics), which is primarily North-America-based and focuses on imaging in oncological clinical trials.
  • Continued strengthening of transversal research including with Disease Oriented Group (DOG) liaisons. The Oligometastatic Disease Subcommittee has made substantial progress with the Delphi consensus on imaging in Breast Cancer in collaboration with the Breast Cancer Group. The Quality Control Subcommittee together with the Gastro-Intestinal Group has collected the data for standardisation of imaging in colorectal cancer.
  • Continued extensive educational activities – all virtual due to the pandemic – including at congresses for the two main European imaging societies. At European Association of Nuclear Medicine, we held a joint session on ‘Nuclear Medicine in Precision Oncology’. We held another joint session at European Congress of Radiology, entitled ‘Trials and tribulations: can imaging biomarkers tell the whole bony story?’

Related Projects

  • IMI QuIC-ConCePT – Quantitative Imaging in Cancer: Connecting Cellular Processes with Therapy. The EORTC is coordinating the project. QuIC-ConCePT aims to provide drug developers with imaging biomarkers that can show earlier and more accurately how patients’ tumors respond to drugs in cancer clinical trials. Imaging biomarkers are being tested within series of clinical validation studies including the trial EORTC-1217-IG-LCG “Evaluation of 3′-deoxy-3′-[18F]fluorothymidine -PET and diffusion weighted imaging -MRI in patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer treated with a platinum-based doublet as preoperative chemotherapy” and Trial EORTC-1423-IG-GITCG “Evaluation of diffusion weighted imaging -MRI in patients with resectable liver metastases from colorectal cancer treated with fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy as preoperative treatment”.
  • IMI2 Tristan – Imaging Biomarkers for Safer Drugs: Validation of Translational Imaging Methods in Drug Safety Assessment. The EORTC is coordinating the project.  The 5-year project will focus on validation of translational imaging methods as potential imaging biomarkers for  the assessment of liver toxicity, lung toxicity and the bio-distribution of biologics. (No website available yet)
  • EORTC RP 1106: A three-step study on the feasibility and prognostic value of rCBV in patients with GBM.
    (project leader: M. Smits) Three steps project:

    • Technical evaluation of acquisition a standardized protocol, centralized data storage, quality assurance.
    • Compare quantification to select and test post-processing tools, to standardize methodology for rCBV measurements and to assess inter- and intra- reader variability.
    • Prognostic value of rCBV to predict patient outcome.
      A publication on repeatability and reproducibility of relative cerebral blood volume measurement in recurrent glioma will be submitted soon.
  • EORTC RP 1547 (PICRIB): Platform for imaging in clinical research in Brussels
    (project leader: J. Vandemeulebroucke)
    PICRIB is a clinical imaging platform that will enable the interoperability of the Brussels university hospitals and facilitate the patient mobility. EORTC is the WP7 lead, and provides guidance regarding standards applicable for imaging used in clinical trial e.g. images acquisition and interpretation, inter-institution quality assurance/ quality control.

Research Group

Group documents
  • Chair

    Christophe Deroose

    U.Z. Leuven

    Leuven, Belgium

  • Vice-Chair

    Frederic Lecouvet

    Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc

    Brussels, Belgium

  • Secretary

    Lioe-fee de geus-oei

    Leiden University Medical Centre

    Leiden, Netherlands

  • Treasurer

    Caroline Caramella

    Groupe Hospitalier Paris Saint-Joseph - Hopital Marie Lannelongue

    Paris, France

Additional People

  • L. Bidaut - Lincoln, GB

    Chair of Radiomics subcommittee

    University of Lincoln

  • C. Caramella - Paris, FR

    Chair of imaging for immunotherapy subcommittee

    Groupe Hospitalier Paris Saint-Joseph - Hopital Marie Lannelongue

  • D. Oprea-Lager - Amsterdam, NL

    Chair of Bone- and Oligomets subcommittee

    Amsterdam University Medical Centres (Location VUmc)

  • F. Lecouvet - Brussels, BE

    Joint Chair of Bone- and Oligomets subcommittee

    Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc

  • N. Aide - Caen, FR

    Chair of QA subcommittee

    CHU de Caen - Hopital Cote de Nacre

  • E. Lopci - Milan, IT

    CHAIR OF EDUCATION SUBCOMMITTEE

    Humanitas Clinical and Research Hospital

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