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June 2023  |  View on your web browser

HARMONIC is a European-funded project that seeks to improve our knowledge on the health effects of medical exposure to ionising radiation in childhood, particularly in cancer patients treated with modern radiotherapy techniques and cardiac patients treated with X-ray guided imaging procedures.

 

We are building the first European registry of children, adolescents and young adults treated with modern radiotherapy techniques.

The registry infrastructure and the protocols for data collection and analyses have been implemented. Patients from four countries are being currently included, both retrospectively and prospectively. We are collecting baseline and follow-up information such as radiotherapy and other treatments, cancer and non-cancer health events, biological and imaging measures, and patient/parent-reported quality of life.

 

We are pooling data on approximately 100,000 paediatric patients who underwent cardiac catheterization in Europe.

We developed a common protocol for data collection in medical centres performing paediatric cardiac catheterization and have currently collected information of around 60% of the population from 7 European countries. This will allow us to study the relationship between radiation exposure early in life, and subsequent cancer in children treated by cardiac catherization.

 

We established the strategy for estimating radiation doses received by different organs of the body for both cohorts of the study.

We have built and validated a Monte Carlo simulation framework for estimating doses far from the treated tumour. This framework will be useful in future studies for estimating radiotherapy risk and optimising treatment planning. We have also developed, and are currenly validating, a user-friendly software tool for rapid dose reconstruction in interventional cardiology procedures.

 

We are investigating the biological mechanisms and potential biomarkers of adverse health effects, which will help to select optimal diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for each patient.

We focus on the development of tumours and vascular disease. We have developed a detailed protocol for collecting, preparing, storing and transporting saliva and blood samples, and have performed analyses to test the quality and quantity of the samples.

LATEST NEWS

 

After the Award, a Publication

08/06/2023 — The HARMONIC project has been recently featured in the European Physical Journal as part of the Euratom Research and Training Awards Collection, 2022. []

 

Building a Large European Cohort of Patients who Underwent Cardiac Fluoroscopy: An Interview with Marie Odile Bernier

01/03/2023 — Researcher at France’s Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) and co-leader of Work Package 3 in Harmonic. []

 

How to Lower the Radiation Dose Received by Children in Medical Tests?

14/02/2023 — By Isabelle Thierry-Chef, ISGlobal researcher and principal investigator of the HARMONIC project. []

 

HARMONIC Consortium Holds its Fourth Annual Meeting in Essen, Germany

22/11/2022 — Team members gathered in person for the first time since the project kicked off, to discuss progress made and actions ahead. []

 

Understanding How Radiation Affects our Cells: An Interview with Siamak Haghdoost

31/10/2022 — The Professor of Molecular Radiobiology at University of Caen and University of Stockholm tells us about his work in HARMONIC. []

 

HARMONIC Researchers Publish Two Major Achievements in the Field of Dosimetry

19/07/2022 — This will help estimate doses absorbed by organs that are far from the irradiated zone in children treated with conventional radiotherapy or proton therapy. []

 

An Interview with Professor Beate Timmermann

11/07/2022 — The Medical Director of the West German Proton Therapy Centre Essen (WPE) answers some questions concerning her work, her life, and her role in HARMONIC. []

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Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal)
Tel. +34 932 271 806 info@isglobal.org