What is the FOSTER consortium

Osteosarcoma is the most common bone cancer affecting children and adolescents, as well as one that can affect older adults too. Unfortunately, osteosarcoma is also one of those cancers that has seen no real improvement in outcomes for more than 30 years. Unlike some other cancers there have been no great strides forward or big breakthroughs to report for a long time.

It’s clear that this is a disease that needs some concerted effort and a big push for change. This is exactly what FOSTER (Fight OSteosarcoma Through European Research) aims to do. It brings together oncologists, researchers, radiologists, patients, parents and others to work together across 20 countries. It has one over-riding aim: To improve the outcomes of patients with osteosarcoma, in terms of duration and quality of life of survivors. Already it has brought together almost 200 individuals and work has started on mapping out the concrete actions needed to make change happen. FOSTER will be looking at clinical trials for first time patients and for patients with disease that has relapsed or spread. It will include basic science streams so we can understand more about the biology of how it starts and spreads – so that we can exploit new knowledge in figuring out how better to target it with treatments. There will be focus on quality of life and long-term effects from treatment and survival.

FOSTER is organised as a set of different work streams, which we call Work Packages (WP), each focused on one specific area. Each WP includes a selection of individuals from different countries and different areas of expertise – including patient and parent advocates, alongside health professionals and researchers. All aspects of the disease are included in the different work packages already organised.

The first FOSTER clinical trial – FOSTER-Cabos, testing a new maintenance therapy – is in preparation at the moment.

In short, FOSTER is exactly the sort of thing we need to be doing to pool our resources, knowledge and skills so that we can focus on a disease that desperately needs new thinking.