Our Mission

Purpose

To develop novel therapies for paediatric malignancies through clinical and translational research connecting new drugs, biology and the unmet needs of children with cancer.

This rational, biology-based strategy will allow the selection and prioritisation of compounds among those under development for adult cancer, those that are potentially important for paediatric malignancies, and the conduct of high-quality early clinical trials using innovative biology and imaging techniques.

Moreover, ITCC is striving to improve the availability of information about new drug development to patients and parents and to reconsider ethical aspects of testing new compounds in children with life-threatening diseases.

Through active collaboration between academic institutions, national and international paediatric oncology organisations, parent organisations, pharmaceutical companies and regulatory bodies, ITCC is avidly seeking to improve the quality and scale of new drug development in paediatric oncology, which will ultimately lead to more appropriate tools for the treatment of children with cancer

In other words, ITCC aims are:

  • Improving access to new drugs for children with cancer
  • Choosing the best candidate drugs to study in children
  • Speeding up their clinical development
  • Considering the unique ethical dimension of testing new drugs in children

Challenges

With hundreds of new compounds under investigation in adult cancers, a limited number of patients eligible for early drug development, and more than 60 different malignancies, we are faced with challenge of:

Introducing new effective and safe treatments to further improve survival and the quality of life of children with cancer.

Specific ITCC Objectives

  1. to select and prioritize adult compounds through biology and preclinical evaluation
  2. to identify new drug targets that are unique to paediatric cancers for therapeutic exploitation
  3. to conduct early clinical evaluation with improved methodologies and designs, validating the use of new pharmacodynamic endpoints and innovative imaging
  4. to improve patient and parent information, participation and related ethical issues
  5. to educate, train and disseminate knowledge to health professionals and citizens

Quantitative Objectives

In 2010 :

  • Evaluation of 10-15 new compounds per year in preclinical studies
  • Evaluation of 3-5 compounds in phase I trials each year
  • Evaluation of 3-5 compounds in phase II trials each year
  • Recruitment of up to 200-300 patients per year in early clinical trials