Why it matters
The OPTIMIZE project aims to improve treatment strategies for patients with locally advanced cancers of the larynx (voice box) and hypopharynx (lower part of the throat). Preserving the larynx is an important goal because it affects a patient’s ability to speak, swallow and maintain quality of life. However, it is currently difficult to predict which patients will benefit from treatments that aim to preserve the larynx and which may require surgery to remove it. OPTIMIZE will develop a more personalised approach by combining clinical information with advanced biological analyses to identify biomarkers that can help predict how patients respond to preserving treatments such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy. This will support better treatment decisions and help improve outcomes for patients.
CPE’s role in the project
CPE is responsible for ensuring that the OPTIMISE project is strongly patient-centred, ethically sound and socially responsible. CPE will lead the development of a Responsible Research and Innovation framework and an Ethical, Legal and Social Implications framework to guide the study from design to implementation. This includes reviewing existing evidence, conducting interviews and focus groups with patients, clinicians and other stakeholders, identifying and integrating meaningful patient-reported outcome measures, and analysing legal and ethical issues related to clinical research and AI-supported personalised medicine. In addition, CPE will contribute to improving the design of clinical studies by co-designing the study protocol and providing ongoing ethical guidance throughout the project. CPE will also play a key role in raising awareness of the project by leveraging its extensive patient network to promote understanding of the research and the value of innovation within the patient community. Through this work, CPE will ensure that the needs, values and rights of patients are embedded throughout the project and that the results can be translated responsibly into clinical practice.
- IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital, Italy
- IRCCS European Institute of Oncology, IEO, Italy
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Attikon University Research Hospital, 2nd Propaedeutic Department of Internal Medicine, Greece
- Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), Medical Oncology Department, Spain
- Medical University Vienna, Center for Cancer Research, Austria
- The Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Israel
- Cancer Patients Europe, Belgium
Type of Action
European Partnership for Personalised Medicine JTC2025 PGxPM2025
Funding
1,363,794€
Project start date
15 April 2026
Project end date
14 April 2029
Lead Partner
IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan, Italy
Focus Area
Head and Neck cancers, Personalised medicine
Project Logo
Coming soon