Pragmatic clinical trials to enhance the quality of life of older cancer patients (65 years and older) through nutrition - Cancer Mission

HaDEA has published the Cancer Mission call Supporting the implementation of the Cancer Mission (HORIZON-MISS-2025-02).

Proposals under topic HORIZON-MISS-2025-02-CANCER-05 should address all of the following: 

• Conduct randomised or cluster-randomised academic investigator-initiated pragmatic clinical trials to validate tailored nutritional care-oriented interventions as part of routine cancer treatment or care, which could include physical activity or psychosocial support, for older cancer patients (65 years and older);
• Translational research is limited to supporting the conduct and analyses of the proposed clinical trial(s). Trials should consider biological stratification of the patient population to be enrolled. All data should be disaggregated by sex, gender, age, and other relevant variables, such as by measures of socio-economic status or ethnicity;
• The chosen nutritional care-centred intervention(s) should be adapted to the needs of older cancer patients and to the specificities of the provision of care at local, regional, or national level, duly reflecting the (cultural) diversity across Member States and Associated Countries. Furthermore, affordability and accessibility should be considered;
• The primary and secondary endpoints of the pragmatic clinical trial(s) should support overall survival, patient-reported outcomes and quality of life issues. Such endpoints should be defined together with older patients and their caregivers through research that stimulates social innovation and supports end-user engagement using participative research models;
• Include an appropriate mix of stakeholders from various disciplines and sectors, such as physicians, academia, patients and their caregivers, patient representatives, dietitians, nutritionists, behavioural scientists, SMEs, insurance companies, charities and foundations, research organisations, civil society, regional and national health authorities;
• All datasets produced should be described with metadata records in the EU dataset catalogue of the European Health Data Space while all tools and models should take advantage of current European research infrastructures, should follow the principles of open science and be made available through the future UNCAN.eu platform.

Interested parties can find more information and apply on the Funding and Tenders Portal.