SPECTA in the news

What is SPECTA?

Advances in our molecular understanding of cancer mean we can selectively target specific patient profiles, leading to the “best fit” treatment. SPECTA is a collaborative European platform that helps deliver high-quality, molecular and pathological screening across tumor types to aid patient selection into clinical trials.

The platform provides an integrated and shared mechanism, with rapid access to patient data and biological samples to enable the quick implementation of new clinical trials and robust translational research.

SPECTA is an agile and adaptable infrastructure to reach patients outside of clinical trials and establish a quality-assured platform for collecting clinic-pathologically annotated biological material from cancer patients. The goal of such a platform is to support bio specimen-based translational research and biomarker discovery and ultimately to propose new therapeutic options to patients with cancers.

SPECTA provides:

an integrated clinical research infrastructure in international settings involving top level university hospitals coming from EORTC network;
facilitated operations through a single entry point to access multiple studies, high quality annotated material access for research purposes and longitudinal follow up of patients to understand progression patterns;
standardized processes for biobanking and human biological material testing, as well as clinical data collection (including imaging data if needed), in partnership with expert laboratories.
SPECTA has developed molecular tumor boards to help clinician take informed clinical decisions based on the genomic profile of their patients.
Clinical trials testing new treatments or diagnostics can be plugged in SPECTA. Registered patients could be proposed to participate to the clinical trial testing therapy matching their genomic profile.

Overview of SPECTA projects List of cohorts opened in SPECTA

Infrastructure

Bio Bank

The collection of Human Biological Material is project dependent and can include tumor tissue but also liquid biopsies. The Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg (IBBL) is the EORTC designated central biobank.

IBBL possesses the necessary infrastructure and expertise to catalogue, curate, process and track the use of large collections of biological samples. All samples will be held in an ISO9001 and ISO17025 accredited facility. All procedures on samples are performed in compliance with EORTC POL020 (“Collection and Use of Human Biological Material”) and relevant national and international quality standards.

https://www.ibbl.lu/

Clinical data collection

Clinical data (demographic, co-morbidity, treatment, biological, histological data,…) will be collected at study entry and follow-up, and stored in EORTC clinical database.

Quality of Life data and imaging data can also be collected if needed.

Genomic analysis

Use of standardized test, performed by accredited laboratories. The list of targeted genomic alterations and other biomarkers of interest will be adapted continually.