Professor Paul Hofman, Director of IHU RespirERA, has joined the Steering Group of the European Coalition for Access to Comprehensive Genomic Profiling (ECGP). This European coalition brings together experts from different fields to promote broader, more structured access to comprehensive genomic profiling using broad gene panels in oncology.
Advancing access to genomic profiling in Europe
Professor Paul Hofman, Professor of Pathology and Director of IHU RespirERA, has joined the Steering Group of the European Coalition for Access to Comprehensive Genomic Profiling.
Established under the auspices of EUCOPE, the coalition brings together healthcare professionals, researchers, patient representatives and industry stakeholders. It works to raise awareness of the value of comprehensive genomic profiling, compare practices across Europe and develop recommendations based on scientific and health economic evidence. Its objectives include improving the integration of these analyses into care pathways and advancing discussions around their funding and reimbursement. Professor Paul Hofman is officially listed among the experts on the ECGP Steering Group.
What is genomic profiling using broad gene panels?
Comprehensive Genomic Profiling, or CGP, uses high-throughput sequencing technologies. It can simultaneously identify numerous genomic alterations and molecular signatures that may play a role in the development of cancer.
This information can help medical teams characterise a tumour more accurately and, in certain situations, identify a suitable treatment option or relevant clinical trial. Its usefulness nevertheless depends on the type of cancer, the clinical situation, the quality of the sample and the availability of a strategy matching the alterations detected.
In a video produced by ECGP, Professor Paul Hofman explains that CGP can be used both at diagnosis and when the tumour progresses. Analyses may be performed using a tissue biopsy taken directly from the tumour or a liquid biopsy, which can detect fragments of tumour DNA in the blood.
This molecular portrait provides information about the characteristics of a tumour and how they may evolve. The approach is particularly relevant to lung cancer, an area in which IHU RespirERA teams are conducting research on biomarkers, molecular sequencing and liquid biopsies.
Ensuring reliable and reusable analyses
The development of CGP does not depend on technology alone. It also requires appropriate organisation, trained professionals and stringent quality standards.
Professor Paul Hofman highlights the importance of assessing a decentralised model for genomic testing at national level. He also emphasises the value of retaining raw data within healthcare institutions so that it can be reanalysed, as well as the need for laboratory accreditation and participation in external quality assessment programmes.
These conditions are essential to produce results that are reliable, comparable and usable over time. They are among the issues addressed by ECGP, alongside access to testing, the assessment of these technologies and their integration into healthcare systems.
Comparing practices and bringing stakeholders together
For the Director of RespirERA Institute, the coalition also provides a forum for dialogue between European countries. It can help compare organisational models, identify effective practices and improve understanding of the difficulties encountered within each healthcare system.
In the video, Professor Paul Hofman describes ECGP as a highly valuable initiative and stresses the need to bring healthcare professionals, patients, experts, policymakers and relevant authorities together around the same table.
His participation brings to the coalition the experience developed in Nice in molecular diagnostics, lung cancer and liquid biopsy. It also gives IHU RespirERA the opportunity to contribute to discussions on the scientific, technical and organisational conditions required to provide more equitable access to increasingly comprehensive genomic profiling. This involvement does not, by itself, change current access to CGP. It does, however, allow these issues to be addressed within a collective European framework.
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