@article {Field1477, author = {J. K. Field and T. Liloglou and A. Niaz and J. Bryan and J. R. Gosney and T. Giles and C. Brambilla and E. Brambilla and A. Vesin and J-F. Timsit and P. Hainaut and Y. Martinet and J. M. Vignaud and F. B. Thunnissen and C. Prinsen and P. J. Snijders and E. F. Smit and G. Sozzi and L. Roz and A. Risch and H. D. Becker and J. S. Elborn and N. D. Magee and L. M. Montuenga and M. J. Pajares and M. D. Lozano and K. J. O{\textquoteright}Byrne and D. J. Harrison and J. Niklinski and A. Cassidy and the EUELC Collaborators}, title = {EUELC project: a multi-centre, multipurpose study to investigate early stage NSCLC, and to establish a biobank for ongoing collaboration}, volume = {34}, number = {6}, pages = {1477--1486}, year = {2009}, doi = {10.1183/09031936.00077809}, publisher = {European Respiratory Society}, abstract = {The European Early Lung Cancer (EUELC) project aims to determine if specific genetic alterations occurring in lung carcinogenesis are detectable in the respiratory epithelium. In order to pursue this objective, nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with a very high risk of developing progressive lung cancer were recruited from 12 centres in eight European countries: France, Germany, southern Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK. In addition, NSCLC patients were followed up every 6 months for 36 months. A European Bronchial Tissue Bank was set up at the University of Liverpool (Liverpool, UK) to optimise the use of biological specimens. The molecular{\textendash}pathological investigations were subdivided into specific work packages that were delivered by EUELC Partners. The work packages encompassed mutational analysis, genetic instability, methylation profiling, expression profiling utilising immunohistochemistry and chip-based technologies, as well as in-depth analysis of FHIT and RARĪ² genes, the telomerase catalytic subunit hTERT and genotyping of susceptibility genes in specific pathways. The EUELC project engendered a tremendous collaborative effort, and it enabled the EUELC Partners to establish protocols for assessing molecular biomarkers in early lung cancer with the view to using such biomarkers for early diagnosis and as intermediate end-points in future chemopreventive programmes. SERIES {\textquotedblleft}LUNG CANCER{\textquotedblright} Edited by C. Brambilla Number 9 in this Series}, issn = {0903-1936}, URL = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/34/6/1477}, eprint = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/34/6/1477.full.pdf}, journal = {European Respiratory Journal} }