Inside-Out Innovation: Highlighting Glioblastoma and Collaboration during European Week Against Cancer

Every nine seconds, someone in the EU hears the words: “You have cancer.”

For people diagnosed with Glioblastoma multiforme – the most aggressive and deadly brain tumour - these words often mean a race against time. Survival is often measured in months, not years. Current treatments like surgery, radiation and chemotherapy offer limited results and no known cure.

This is why NuCapCure, funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) as part of the Pathfinder Open Programme in Horizon Europe, is pushing for a radical new direction.

A Smarter Way to Fight Glioblastoma

Imagine the cancer cell as a highly efficient factory. What if we could hijack that factory and turn it into a pipeline providing the specialised chemicals for precision proton and neutron treatments and turn the tumour against itself?

NuCapCure brings together researchers from across Europe in fields like photobiology, synthetic and medicinal chemistry, nuclear and accelerator physics and radiation biology among others to develop a new approach to treatment using precision proton and neutron therapies. Combined with chemistry, these treatments target cancer at its core causing it to self-destruct, while leaving healthy brain tissue unharmed.

It is a smart, targeted and potentially less harmful approach to a devastating disease.

Standing with European Week Against Cancer

During the European Week Against Cancer (EWAC), from 25th – 31st May 2025, NuCapCure is proud to stand with the Association of European Cancer Leagues and a community of scientists, health advocates, civil society groups and policymakers working to prevent, treat and transform cancer care across Europe.

In discussing the importance of EWAC, NuCapCure Project Coordinator Dr Theodossis Theodossiou from the Universitetet i Oslo emphasised: “Research drives every advance in cancer care. It is how we go from no options to new hope.”

He continued: “Our research is based on putting ourselves in the shoes of the patients and their relatives. During EWAC we honour the survivors and those living with cancer whose strength and resilience inspire everything we do. There is an imperative need to support and fund innovative, patient-focused research across Europe because every patient deserves not just life, but a future full of possibility.”

Why This Week Matters

EWAC is not only a moment of awareness – it is a call to action. It reminds us that every breakthrough starts in a lab, but concerns real people around us.

Join us this week in recognising European research efforts shaping the future of cancer care for every person, of every age, living with cancer. For them, we are driving change and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in cancer treatment.

Learn more about European Week Against Cancer:
https://www.cancer.eu/ewac/