BRUSSELS – The Anticancer Fund would like to support clinical trials on evolutionary therapy and therefore is launching a ‘Request for Application’ (RFA) to researchers and organisations. The overall purpose is to improve the survival outcomes of cancer patients.

Cancer is a complex disease, evolving in many different ways. Nevertheless, a lot of research is conducted without taking this dynamic process into account. Clinical trials in oncology, aiming at decreasing or controlling the spread of the disease, focus in general on killing the maximum number of tumour cells. But by doing so, treatment–sensitive cells are eliminated, allowing resistant cells to proliferate.

That’s why for this RFA, the Anticancer Fund is targeting clinical trials testing therapies based on evolutionary principles. The most clinically advanced strategy today is adaptive therapy, a treatment strategy attempting to prolong response to treatment by delaying the emergence of resistance. The main principle of the intervention is to control the tumour and prolong survival by allowing on/off treatment periods, based on a valid marker.

This RFA will accept clinical trials on adaptive therapy and any other evolutionarily informed strategy, according to our eligibility criteria. We encourage investigators to apply for funding for their clinical trial evaluating such approach in cancer patients.

We foresee a total budget of 1.5M € and anticipate supporting up to 3 trials with this budget.

We kindly ask applicants to submit their Letter of Intent the latest on the 1st of March, 2021. We are planning to communicate the final selection by the 31st of August, 2021.

More details about the scope of this Request for Application (RFA) and how to apply, can be found here.

More information about how we support clinical trials:
Find out more on our Apply for Funding page here.
Learn more about our involvement in clinical trials here.
Discover the trials we support here.