On March 13th the conference hall of the Hospital Duran i Reynals (ICO) hosted the annual meeting of the European project Coltheres. This consortium involves hospitals and translational research centers in six European countries and aims to encourage clinical trials of personalized therapies in colon cancer.

Coltheres will use colon cancers as a ‘test-bed’ to define specific biomarkers useful for design targeted treatments. The consortium is open to any pharmaceutical developer who wishes to determine which patients are most likely to respond to their novel cancer therapy and perform rapid proof-of-concept clinical trials.

The Consortium comprises clinical units that are pioneering biomarker testing for targeted therapies and leading translational research groups with a proven track record in developing companion diagnostics for cancer therapies.

The Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program of the IDIBELL, led by Manel Esteller, participates on this project, which brings about international experts in the fields of functional genomics and epigenomics, pharamacogenetics, bio-informatics and clinical oncology. The contribution of IDIBELL to Coltheres will be obtain epigenomic profiles in patients and experimental models in order to find new prognostic and drug resistance biomarkers in colorectal cancer.