IKCC is a proud partner of the DISCERN Project – Discovering the Causes of Three Poorly Understood Cancers in Europe. It is a five-year project of the European Commission Cancer Mission to understand the causes of renal (kidney), pancreatic, and colorectal cancer in Europe and to help explain the geographical distribution of these cancer types, including their high incidence in central and eastern Europe.

Coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the DISCERN Project brings together a multidisciplinary consortium of 20 institutions from across Europe. The project started in January 2023 and is funded by the European Commission in the framework of the Horizon Europe Mission on Cancer.

IKCC has a unique role in the DISCERN Project to ensure that patients and caregivers are represented throughout, and results are relevant to the patient community, and that findings are communicated in plain language. The specific details of our role are outlined here in Work Package 7 (WP7).

For more information about the DISCERN Project, visit https://discern.iarc.who.int/.

 

Information on the Understanding cluster:

DISCERN is part of a group of five projects that received funding from the European Commission through the Horizon Europe programme (HORIZON-MISS-2021-CANCER-02-03) to work on Objective 1 of the Cancer Mission programme, which is aimed at better understanding the impact of risk factors and health determinants on the development and progression of cancer. These projects are:

  • GENIAL: Understanding gene–environment interaction in alcohol-related hepatocellular carcinoma
  • LUCIA: Understanding lung cancer-related risk factors and their impact
  • ELMUMY: Elucidation of risk factors and health determinants associated with progression of monoclonal gammopathies to multiple myeloma
  • DISCERN: Discovering the causes of three poorly understood cancers in Europe (renal, pancreatic and colorectal)
  • MELCAYA: Novel health-care strategies for melanoma in children, adolescents, and young adults

The main goal of this cluster is to support the mission objective of “Understanding cancer”, create added value, establish a policy feedback loop, and increase the impact of the EU funding.

DISCERN will lead the citizen engagement of the “Understanding” cluster. The organization of exchanges with citizens at the cluster level (including patients) will be discussed to ensure engagement and take their views into account when implementing future health-care policies. Results and lessons learned in the workshops organized internally by each of the individual projects will be shared with the other members of the cluster.

Watch Understanding “Risk factors and Determinants” cluster video
Download Understanding “Risk Factors & Determinants” cluster brochure