This is the VASCERN Specific Grant Agreement Proposal for the second year of operation of the ERN (from March 2018 to February 2019), under the VASCERN Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) 2017-2021.
VASCERN Network Coordinator is Prof. Guillaume JONDEAU, Cardiologist at the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard, CRMR (Center of Reference) Marfan Diseases and related disorders.
VASCERN aims to facilitate and improve diagnosis, treatment and care for all patients suffering from rare multisystemic vascular diseases.
The European Reference Network on rare multisystemic vascular diseases (VASCERN) gathers European highly specialized multidisciplinary Healthcare Providers (HCPs) in this thematic area of expertise.
VASCERN includes 5 Rare Diseases Working Groups (RDWGs):
- Heritable Thoracic Aortic Diseases (HTAD-WG)
- Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT-WG)
- Medium Sized Arteries (vascular Ehlers Danlos) (MSA-WG)
- Pediatric and Primary Lymphedemas (PPL-WG)
- Vascular Anomalies (VASCA-WG)
The specific VASCERN Patient Group (ePAG) enables Patient representatives to work on common issues and to be
involved in all activities.
In addition, several transversal Working Groups work on: eHealth, Training & Education, Patient Registry,
Ethics, Communication / Dissemination.
Our Action Plan for this second year will enable VASCERN to carry on with its work and reinforce its activities with regard to various Work Packages such as: Case discussion on the Clinical Patient Management System (CPMS), Patient Pathways, Clinical Guidelines / recommendations, Mobile Application (improvements), Patient Registry & clinical outcome measures, Communication (improvements), Training & Education, Pills of Knowledge, Clinical trials & research.
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GENTURIS is a European Reference Network (ERN) for all patients with one of the rare genetic tumour risk syndromes (genturis). These patients are at very high hereditary risk of developing multiple tumours, which are often located in multiple organ systems. In case they are diagnosed with cancer they need different treatment and follow-up
as compared to non-hereditary cancers. In addition GENTURIS takes care of the relatives of these patients, for which prevention and early detection of tumours is of great importance too.
WHAT IS OUR MISSION: To inspire hope and contribute to health and well being by organizing and providing the best care to every patient in Europe with a genetic tumour risk syndrome through integrated multidisciplinary healthcare, guidelines, education and research.
WHAT IS OUR DESIRED END-STATE: Striving to be the world’s leader of genetic tumour risk syndromes in patient participation, clinical care, research and education.
The ERN GENTURIS is addressing the following challenges when it comes to the identification, genetic testing, tumour prevention and treatment of patients with genturis: 1) Great majority of genturis patients are not yet identified 2) Large variation in clinical outcomes resulting in impaired prognosis and avoidable costs 3) Guidelines are
lacking or implemented insufficiently 4) Almost no patient registries and biobanks 5) Limited research programs 6) Fragmented patient empowerment activities.
There are 4 thematic groups of syndromes: 1: Neurofibromatosis type 1, 2 & Schwannomatosis. 2: Lynch syndrome & polyposis. 3: Hereditary breast & ovarian cancer. 4: Other rare - predominantly malignant - syndromes. This group includes syndromes not covered in the other groups. It is a heterogeneous group with very small numbers of patients that will benefit greatly from a centralized approach. Within the next years not yet covered as well as newly discovered genturis will be included as well.
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ERNICA – This European Reference network aims to support specialised centres across Europe to provide care of the highest quality to patients with rare, inherited and congenital anomalies. These diseases are often low prevalence and complex. The network seeks to connect the most highly specialised centres in Europe so that professionals can share their knowledge and best practice. It also seeks to connect patient groups across the continent. It is hoped that the pooling of resources and expert information from both patients and professionals will facilitate access to high quality, multidisciplinary care for all European patients. The focus of the next 3 years will be; Expansion of the network across Europe (both healthcare providers and patient groups), development of disease-specific guidelines, consensus documents and ‘patient journeys’, data collection and benchmarking via use of a registry, organisation of training and development of training resources, multi-centre research and full implementation of the Clinical Patient Management System. ‘Fetal Medicine’ has been added as an additional work package and there are plans over the next 3 years for pre-natal guideline development and the establishment of an ERNICA pre-natal care network.
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This is the VASCERN Specific Grant Agreement for Year 3 to Year 5 under the Framework Partnership Agreement. VASCERN Network Coordinator is Prof. Guillaume JONDEAU, Cardiologist at the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard, CRMR (Center of Reference) Marfan Diseases and related disorders. VASCERN aims to facilitate and improve diagnosis, treatment and care for all patients suffering from rare multisystemic vascular diseases.
The European Reference Network on rare multisystemic vascular diseases (VASCERN) gathers European highly specialized multidisciplinary Healthcare Providers (HCPs) in this thematic area of expertise.
VASCERN includes 5 Rare Diseases Working Groups (RDWGs):
- Heritable Thoracic Aortic Diseases (HTAD-WG)
- Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT-WG)
- Medium Sized Arteries (vascular Ehlers Danlos) (MSA-WG)
- Pediatric and Primary Lymphedemas (PPL-WG)
- Vascular Anomalies (VASCA-WG)
The specific VASCERN Patient Group (ePAG) enables Patient representatives to work on common issues and to be
involved in all activities.
In addition, several transversal Working Groups work on eHealth, Training & Education, Patient Registry,
Ethics, Communication / Dissemination.
Our Action Plan will enable VASCERN to carry on with its work and reinforce its activities with
regard to various Work Packages detailed in this project proposal.


ERN GENTURIS is a European Reference Network (ERN) for all patients with one of the rare genetic tumour risk syndromes (genturis). These patients are at very high hereditary risk of developing multiple tumours, which are often located in multiple organ systems. In case they are diagnosed with cancer they need different treatment and follow-up as compared to non-hereditary cancers. In addition GENTURIS takes care of the relatives of these patients, for which prevention and early detection of tumours is of great importance too.

WHAT IS OUR MISSION: To inspire hope and contribute to health and well being by organizing and providing the best care to every patient in Europe with a genetic tumour risk syndrome through integrated multidisciplinary healthcare, guidelines, education and research.

WHAT IS OUR DESIRED END-STATE: Striving to be the world’s leader of genetic tumour risk syndromes in patient participation, clinical care, research and education.

ERN GENTURIS is addressing the following challenges when it comes to the identification, genetic testing, tumour prevention and treatment of patients with genturis: 1) Great majority of genturis patients are not yet identified 2) Large variation in clinical outcomes resulting in impaired prognosis and avoidable costs 3) Guidelines are lacking or implemented insufficiently 4) Almost no patient registries and biobanks 5) Limited research programs 6) Fragmented patient empowerment activities.

There are 4 thematic groups of syndromes: 1: Neurofibromatosis type 1, 2 & Schwannomatosis. 2: Lynch syndrome & polyposis. 3: Hereditary breast & ovarian cancer. 4: Other rare - predominantly malignant - syndromes. The last group includes syndromes not covered in the other groups. It is a heterogeneous group with very small numbers of patients that will benefit greatly from a centralized approach. Within the next years not yet covered as well as newly discovered genturis will be included as well.
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