Programme Manager

Dr Yuen-Li Chung (yuen-li.chung@icr.ac.uk) has joined the team to provide programme management support for the Sarcoma Accelerator. Yuen-Li will work with Ms. Emma Pendleton (emma.pendleton@icr.ac.uk) to organise the administrative aspects of the Sarcoma Accelerator Award. If you have any queries, please do contact them.

Grant start date

Cancer Research UK has requested that we continue with the original start date but are fully aware of the challenges Centres have faced as a result of COVID-19. They have indicated that they will approve a no cost extension at the end of the award period should we require it.

UK budget cut

Due to overall financial situation of CRUK as a result of COVID, all Accelerators have been asked to make budget cuts. For the Sarcoma Accelerator we have been asked to make a 10% cut in FY 20/21. This will only apply to the UK sites.

Thank you for your support in helping manage this cut. All UK sites have agreed to the relevant reduction in spending in FY 20/21. We have been advised that the Grant Award Letter for Year 1 will not change but instead our Year 2 award will be reduced and we will be able to carry forward the Year 1 savings to cover costs in Year 2.

CRUK is aware that the reduction in funds will likely make it challenging to achieve some of the deliverables in the original proposal and have indicated that they will take this into account for annual reporting.

Steering Committee Meeting

We are proposing to have the first steering committee meeting in October. Doodle poll has been sent to the relevant investigators and more information will be provided soon.

Working Group Updates

Clinical Data Working Group

Remit: decide a minimum level of clinical data for retrospective and prospective cases (and allow curation of eCRF for prospective cohort)

• Progress made since kick off meeting
  • First draft for eCRF developed; adapted by Glasgow from STRASS II CRF to meet Accelerator Clinical Data Requirements for retrospective and prospective clinical data collection
  • eCRF first draft reviewed and second draft in progress
  • Multi-institutional protocol drafted for UK centres
    • Agreed upon Royal Marsden acting as sponsor and other UK centres listed as sites
    • Final draft being tweaked and plan to submit to regulatory bodies ASAP
    • Alannah/Emma Perkins working on a consent form/PIS for review before sending to regulatory bodies
    • Local in principle submission underway for Royal Marsden internal review procedure before REC submission
  •  Retrospective sample numbers have been obtained from all centres and collated with Robin

• Outstanding actions
  • Final draft eCRF to be reviewed by all members of CDWG and finalised
  • Protocol/PIS/ consent form to be reviewed by all centres and finalised for submission to regulatory bodies

Data Transfer Working Group

Remit: Logistics of how and when clinical and biological data will be transferred safely/efficiently, logistics of uploading images onto XNAT platform including batch vs individual. Define what SOPs required (need to clearly specify requirements of each element and standardise across centres), what SOPs already available and how they can be shared, and delegation of writing of SOPs

• Progress made since kick-off meeting
  • SOP’s will be based upon the data transfer flow chart for each data type (genomic, imaging, digital path, clinical data)
  • Imaging questionnaire to decipher local imaging protocols/formats developed by Matt and Christina for circulation
    • Glasgow will develop a unique identifier string to assign to patients o Will allow for differentiation between prospective/retrospective cohorts and what centre the patient was recruited at
  • Decided upon doing test runs specifically to identify mistakes with each sites method of sending through imaging transfer before transferring batches filled with errors

• Outstanding actions
  • Glasgow collecting information from each centre about format of retrospective data and how best they would transfer this
  • Flow charts for each type of data transfer
    • Genomic data: Andrew Beggs
    • Imaging data: Simon Doran and Christina Messiou
    • Digital Path data: Yinyin
  • Data protection checklist requirements from each centre to be collated by Emma Pendleton
  • Simon and Andrew to discuss logistics of uploading images onto the XNAT platform including batch/individual
  • Develop the SOP’s for the transfer of the different types of data based on the data flow charts

Biological Research Working Group

Remit: Determine which biological research will be performed where (including shipping etc) and how much material is needed for each technique e.g. omics, sequencing, patient-derived models etc. Define what SOPs required (need to clearly specify requirements of each element and standardise across centres), what SOPs already available and how they can be shared, and delegation of writing of SOPs

• Progress made since kick-off meeting
  • - Local SOPs for tissue collection, storage and shipping have been collated from ICR, Birmingham, Milan and Seville centres to process samples for genomics, proteomics and patient-derived model generation

• Outstanding actions
  • Harmonise local SOPs into single, standardised central SOP for tissue collection, storage and shipping, including priority order for downstream workflows if tissue is limited (in progress)
  • Circulate central SOPs to all centres to review

NB: Thanks to Emma Perkins for compiling all the Working Group updates.