The EU has awarded a six-million-euro grant to the project CTCtrap (Circulating Tumour Cells TheRapeutic Apheresis), led by Leon Terstappen, Professor of Medical Cell Biophysics at the University of Twente.
The new and highly advanced technique known as the CTCtrap aims to screen cancer patients for circulating tumor cells (CTC) in the future, and thereby to provide therapy that is better tailored to individual patients. The CTCtrap is expected to be available in about four years’ time. According to Prof. Terstappen, “this new technology will bring about a radical change in the treatment of cancer patients.”
The project team consists of a consortium of eleven companies, universities, and research institutes from the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Estonia, Germany and the Netherlands. Asper Biotech, the Estonian partner in the project, will be involved in molecular profiling of CTCs. The project’s official date of commencement is September 1, 2012.