[A TRADUIRE] Cancéropôle CLARA et Centre ETOILE

In collaboration with the CLARA regional cancer cluster, the European Center for Light Ion Hadron Cancer Therapy (ETOILE) has organized a showcase day for its research projects and the Regional Hadron Therapy Research Program.

ETOILE is due to set up on the Bioparc Lyon site and will welcome its first patients in 2014. It will be the first center in France to offer carbon ion treatment of radioresistant, inoperable tumors (i.e. following the failure of conventional radiotherapy). In France, this type of tumor affects between 3,500 and 6,000 patients a year. The tumors generally grow slowly, have low metastatic potential and are close to vital organs.

This exceptional facility - there are only seven other centers of this type in the world - will place Lyon at the cutting edge of international oncology research.

In close collaboration with the CLARA cancer cluster, ETOILE will implement a number of research projects in line with 4 themes in the ProCan cancer research program:
- Theme I: nanotechnology, imaging and cancer, with the development of functional molecular imaging for tumor characterization (hypoxia and radioresistance).
- Theme IV: epidemiology, with a nationwide study of rare tumors that may be candidates for carbon ion treatment.
- Theme V: therapeutic targeting and modeling, with a particularly significant conceptual input in the field of tumor response modeling.
- Theme VI: tumor escape, with a novel study of the mechanisms of radioresistance in human tumors via a radiobiological and biological approach.

The patients will be monitored in the short, medium and long term, thanks to creation of the ETOILE Prospective Observational Study (POSE) for assessing the efficacy and toxicity of carbon ion treatment.

This project unites five partners responsible for preparing the center's construction and operation: the Lyon Public Hospitals Group, the Leon Bérard Center (Lyon), Grenoble University Medical Center, Saint-Etienne University Medical Center and the Loire Institute of Oncology. This healthcare collaboration group has been specially created in order to accelerate and optimize the facility's commissioning.

The ETOILE initiative is part of France's National Cancer Plan, which is intended to foster world-class projects and provide concrete support to stakeholders in tumor treatment.
ETOILE will constitute a major asset for Bioparc Lyon and all the researchers, companies and medical staff involved in the fight against cancer.

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