Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

Dr Fassnacht is now International Study Coordinator forthe fi rst-ever randomised phase III trial in ACC. ‘While thisstudy is performed just with public funding, now more andmore companies are actually contacting us for trials in ACC,’Dr Fassnacht is happy to report. ‘In Germany, we startedanother clinical study two years ago, supported in part by apharmaceutical company. And just now we are negotiating witha company that wants to sponsor an entire international trial,so that is another sign of progress. Through our researchand our networking we awakened their [pharmaceuticalcompanies’] interest.’All of this development from no established therapy to havinga new drug within scientists’ reach has happened in the lastfew years. And Dr Fassnacht has been one of the agents ofthis development, something of which he has every reasonto be proud: ‘Our group, alongside fi ve or six other groupsworldwide, has helped this progress along. I realise only whenI look back now that we were part of it. Certainly, we didn’tachieve it on our own, but together with some other groups, wehave managed to at least make things a little more established.That’s a great feeling.’Hopes for a new drugNevertheless, Dr Fassnacht and his collaborators in Europe andthe United States still have a fair bit of work ahead of them, ifthey really want to give more ACC patients a chance of survival.‘Considering the basic research that we’re doing, I fear it willtake at least 5 or even 10 years to put this in clinical trials andthen maybe commercial output,’ Dr Fassnacht estimates. ‘Butthese other trials, hopefully with the help of companies we arenegotiating with at the moment, may lead to approval for newdrugs in four or maybe fi ve years.’Project acronymATTACCFull project titleDendritic cell-based cancer immunotherapy targeting thetumour stromaType of grantOutgoing International FellowshipBudgetEUR 163 051Duration of project01-01-2005 - 31-12-2006Scientific disciplineLife sciencesHost institutionBayerische Julius-Maximilians-UniversitätProfessor Bruno AllolioDepartment of Medicine I, Endocrine UnitSanderring 2DE-97070 WürzburgDuke University Medical CenterProfessor Eli Gilboa331 Trent DriveDurham NC27710 - United States259