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Patient Cohorts

The development of cancer therapies is a high-risk, expensive and time-consuming process. Furthermore, new cancer therapies are often only effective in a subset of the intended patient population. A factor contributing to the high failure rate of drugs in clinical trials is the heterogeneity of recruited patients. To revolutionize the way therapies are developed, we need to take the inherent heterogeneity of cancer patients into account early on, during preclinical stages of the drug development pipeline.

We aim to bridge the translational gap, using innovations such as organoids and well-defined patient data. Eventually this should accelerate translating preclinical findings into benefits for patients.

By Jeanine Roodhart, University Medical Center Utrecht, Platform Lead

By integrating patient data and materials early in the research process, matching the right patients to the right (clinical) studies, and building the right frameworks to ensure that patients can access new innovations as quickly as possible, we can accelerate the development of better treatments.

By Elise Rinzema, University Medical Center Utrecht, Program Manager, Patient Cohorts

Placing the patient at the core of preclinical drug development.

The Oncode Accelerator program places cancer patients at the core of preclinical drug development. Using real-world and real-time data from well-defined cohorts, the Patient Cohorts Platform aims to accelerate preclinical development efficacy. For new partners that join Oncode Accelerator through Demonstrator Projects, this means that well-defined patient cohort data (patient and tumor characteristics) and material can be integrated at different stages of the drug development pipeline. This should lead to more accurate identification of medical needs, early validation and a higher probability of success.

Read more about the efforts of the Patient Cohort Platform within the Dutch Prospective National Colorectal Cancer Cohort (Prospectief Landelijk CRC cohort, PLCRC) and its recent achievement of enrolling 25,000 colorectal cancer patients who have consented to participate.

The Patient Cohorts Platform is furthermore establishing a National Platform for Early-Phase Clinical Trials that will enable trials investigating a new drug or combination of drugs, with a pharmacological, therapeutic, or toxicity endpoint. This will enable faster patient recruitment when testing clinical candidates resulting from Demonstrator Projects and beyond. The platform will be able to utilize innovative adaptive study designs to increase the efficiency of the early-phase trials. A patient allocation tool will support with prioritization of patients by automatically matching them to the most suitable trial, ensuring timely access to innovative treatments and personalized care.

Efficient and effective drug development through our Patient Cohorts Platform

Key to the success of the Oncode Accelerator program is the selection and execution of high-quality Demonstrator Projects which aim to both validate the Oncode Accelerator infrastructure while simultaneously addressing unmet medical needs. New partners can join the Oncode Accelerator Program with a Demonstrator Project to co-develop assets within one of our four preclinical development pipelines, so called Workstreams:  

Together with our two other innovation Platforms (Organoids and Artificial Intelligence), the Patient Cohort Platform aims to integrate innovative technology into the preclinical discovery and development infrastructure built and implemented within the Oncode Accelerator Workstreams.

The combination of our Workstreams and Platforms creates a synergistic effect, which should allow for earlier and more accurate predictions of the safety and effectiveness of newly developed therapies for specific patient groups, eventually resulting in better therapies tailored to individual patients or patient subgroups.

Click on the arrows below to understand how the Oncode Accelerator Patient Cohorts Platform supports cancer researchers and drug developers through Demonstrator Projects.

Are you looking to…
- Integrate data and body material (tissue/blood) from patients with informed consent in compliance with laws and regulations
- Define the right target population and identify the non-active agents
- Design adaptive trials for the highest likelihood of success
- Conduct a first proof of concept or early-phase clinical trial for your drug
- Find expert guidance in creating your clinical development plan
- Identify patients with specific tumor characteristics or genetic alterations for your study and drug
- Consultation on your decisions regarding patient population, eligibility criteria, sample size, study-related assessments, and the overall feasibility of your study within the rapidly evolving landscape of modern cancer care and clinical trials
- Co-create an adaptive early phase clinical trial to expand your chance of successful development
Would you like to utilize….
Enriched data and material from consented patients for one of the following adult indications:
- Colorectal cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Bladder cancer
- Neuro-endocrine tumors
Clinical and molecular data  (including whole-genome sequencing WGS, RNA-sequencing) of paediatric patients for indications including brain cancer, neuroblastoma, sarcoma, leukemia, Wilms tumour (kidney) and bone cancer.
Additional indications and data can be discussed, depending on availability.
Why would this be of interest?

Integrating well-defined patient cohort data in Demonstrator Projects allows for dynamic adjustment of a compound’s trajectory using tissue, blood, and organoid collections (in collaboration with the Organoid innovation Platform).
This helps define target populations and select patients for early phase clinical trials, aiding biomarker research, proof of concept trials, and regulatory use of outcome data. (Real-time) clinical data and materials furthermore help target the right patient population, showing those with the highest medical need and/or most likely to benefit from the therapy.
The Patient Cohorts Platform also aids in creating intervention and control groups for comparative studies, selecting patients based on characteristics like cancer type or genetic profiles. Following patients over time aids in understanding disease progression and long-term treatment effects.

Accelerate the development of oncology therapeutics, for patients of all ages.

Available Patient Cohorts (subject to change)

Running Cohorts	Samples	Informed Consent	Clinical Data	Matching Organoids available	Additional information
Head and Neck	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	~ 50 patients included
Lung	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	~ 300 patients included
Breast	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	~ 100 patients included
Colorectal cancer (CRC)*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	~ 26000 patients included, informed consent available for materials incl. blood and tissue (FFPE and frozen)
Bladder	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	~ 1600 patients in cohort
Ovarian	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	~ 2150 patients in cohort
Lymphoma	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	~ 500 patients in cohort
Rare cancers: neuroendocrine tumour, neuroendocrine carcinoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, & Thyroid cancer	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	~ 500 patients in cohort
Pediatric indications**	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depending on indication	~ 2000 patients included, information available on material, clinical and molecular data (Whole-genome sequencing and RNA-sequencing)

* CRC indications: Small intestine, colon, rectum, anus

** Contact us for more information on the indications available

Click the logos below to visit the website of each individual cohort for more information (note, some are in Dutch).

Learn More and Join Us

Contact us for the most up-to-date status of Patient Cohorts availability of data and materials and to learn how to join our program through Demonstrator Projects.

In case you are interested to learn more about the activities of the National Platform for Early-Phase Clinical Trials, we welcome you to also contact us to request a consultation with the experts within the Patient Cohort Platform.

Contact Us

Oncode Accelerator is a dynamic collaboration of more than 35 public and private partners. The following consortium partners are part of the Patient Cohorts Platform.