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News / Press release

  • 27/01/2022 - Press release

    New diagnostic marker for pancreatic cancer identified

    This is a new valid marker for diagnosing this type of tumour, one of the cancers with the worst prognosis. It is, in fact, the third leading cause of cancer death in developed countries. The study, published in the journal eBioMedicine, was led by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute and IBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS. Their results point to a protein present in tumour cells as an indicator of pancreatic cancer in early stages of the disease. This marker can be detected through a simple blood test, facilitating its application in clinical practice. A team of researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM-Hospital del Mar) and IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS have identified a new viable early diagnostic marker for the most common type of pancreatic cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The study has been published in the journal eBioMedicine, from The Lancet group, and may represent an important step in the early detection and treatment of this type of tumour, with one of the worst prognoses. Doctors and researchers from the Digestology and Medical Oncology Departments at Hospital del Mar, as well as from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas; CNIO), the Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research (Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria; IRYCIS) and CIBER also collaborated in the study.

    Més informació "New diagnostic marker for pancreatic cancer identified"

  • 17/11/2021 - Press release

    Artificial intelligence for selecting the best lung cancer treatment

    Hospital del Mar, in collaboration with Roche, is working on a pioneering artificial intelligence tool to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with small cell lung cancer, one of the cancers with the worst outlook. Based on digitised images from patient biopsies and survival data, the aim is to test whether the tool can reliably predict the benefit of the various treatments. This would allow more effective selection of the most appropriate type of treatment. At a later stage, the aim is to evaluate the specific mutations present in each tumour and to analyse whether digital imaging is capable of predicting these. Hospital del Mar, in collaboration with Roche, has initiated the development of a pioneering artificial intelligence device to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of patients suffering small cell lung cancer. This is one of the lung cancers with the worst prognosis and having such a reliable tool will allow medical teams to determine the best treatment for each type of patient.

    Més informació "Artificial intelligence for selecting the best lung cancer treatment"

  • 12/08/2021 - Press release

    Way to avoid treatment resistance for one of the most aggressive breast cancers identified

    A study led by doctors and researchers from Hospital del Mar, the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), and CIBER Oncology (CIBERONC) has demonstrated the role a protein, neuregulin, plays in generating resistance to the most common treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer, one of the most aggressive types. The study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, and in which leading Italian researchers Luca Gianni from the Fondazione Gianni Bonnadonna and Giampaolo Bianchini from the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele have collaborated, has identified that in patients with high levels of this protein, the success rate with the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab, the first-line drug, drops. Conversely, when combined with another monoclonal antibody, pertuzumab, the situation is reversed and full pathological response levels are restored.

    Més informació "Way to avoid treatment resistance for one of the most aggressive breast cancers identified"

  • 06/08/2021 - Press release

    $200,000 grant for lung cancer research at Hospital del Mar

    A Hospital del Mar project to determine new prognostic and predictive markers that could be beneficial in metastatic small cell lung cancer treatment, using genetic analysis techniques, has been awarded $200,000 from the Oncomine Clinical Research Grant programme, promoted by the US-based multinational biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific, which supports research that enables advances in the field of molecular patient profiling, with the aim of improving clinical outcomes. The research was led by Dr. Edurne Arriola, head of the lung cancer section in the Medical Oncology Service and a researcher at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), and Dr. Beatriz Bellosillo, head of the Medical Oncology Service and also an IMIM researcher. To undertake the project, they will analyse samples from 300 patients with this pathology, collected over the last 10 years. The research will focus on evaluating the potential of the liquid biopsy technique, which can detect DNA from tumour cells in the blood, to monitor the disease and its evolution, as well as detecting potential biomarkers of treatment benefit and predictors of long-term prognosis.

    Més informació "$200,000 grant for lung cancer research at Hospital del Mar"

  • Press release

    A new approach to metastatic melanoma discovered

    Combining chemotherapy with a BRAF oncogene inhibitor proves effective at treating this disease. The study, published in the journal Oncogene, was led by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Hospital del Mar and CIBERONC. This alternative paves the way towards a new approach for patients affected by this type of tumor, which has no cure in the most advanced stages or cases of relapse.

    Més informació "A new approach to metastatic melanoma discovered"

  • 21/06/2021 - Press release

    PEGASUS study launched to optimise post-surgical treatment of colon cancer using liquid biopsy

    As a result of the collaboration between research centres in Italy and Spain, the PEGASUS study has been launched with the aim of demonstrating that, thanks to the liquid biopsy guidance tool, it is possible to increase the precision of post-surgical treatment for colon cancer patients. The Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), part of the Vall d'Hebron Campus, and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), both in Barcelona; and the INCLIVA Health Research Institute at Hospital Clínico in Valencia, are the three Spanish centres taking part in this project. The study was instigated by Dr. Silvia Marsoni, from the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology (IFOM) in Milan, and is supported by the AIRC Foundation within the 5x1000 programme, which is coordinated by Prof. Alberto Bardelli of the University of Turin and the Institute of Candiolo FPO-IRCCS.

    Més informació "PEGASUS study launched to optimise post-surgical treatment of colon cancer using liquid biopsy"

  • 19/05/2021 - Press release

    Liquid biopsy can predict relapse in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer

    Liquid biopsy can predict which patients with localised rectal cancer are likely to relapse, even after initial chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment, and prior to surgery. This is supported by a study led by doctors and researchers from the Medical Oncology and Pathology Departments at Hospital del Mar, as well as the Hospital de Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and the CIBER in cancer (CIBERONC), which has been published in the American Association for Cancer Research journal, Clinical Cancer Research. The study analysed samples from 72 patients from twenty hospitals in Spain, taken as part of the GEMCAD1402 clinical trial conducted by the Spanish Multidisciplinary Group on Digestive Cancer.

    Més informació "Liquid biopsy can predict relapse in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer"

  • 13/05/2021 - Press release

    Hospital del Mar leads clinical trial of a new tool for detecting the sentinel lymph node in prostate cancer

    Hospital del Mar-IMIM is leading an international clinical trial to evaluate the performance and suitability of new equipment for locating the sentinel lymph node in prostate cancer patients. The new tool is a flexible, miniaturized probe, which should improve the detection of a marker (a radioactive molecule) injected into the patient to locate the first node the tumour drains to. The technology SENSEI®, has been developed by the UK company Lightpoint Medical with the support of the Hospital del Mar Urology Service.

    Més informació "Hospital del Mar leads clinical trial of a new tool for detecting the sentinel lymph node in prostate cancer"

  • 16/12/2020 - Press release

    Cancer cells resistant to treatment are already present before diagnosis of adult leukaemia

    T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) is a cancer of the blood that affects mainly children, but also less frequently adults. In adults, although the response to treatment might be initially positive, relapses are common and have a poor prognosis. A collaborative project between IRB Barcelona's Biomedical Genomics lab, headed by ICREA researcher Núria López-Bigas, Anna Bigas' group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), and Josep Maria Ribera's lab at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) has discovered that the cells responsible for resistance to T-ALL treatment in adults are already present in the tumours before diagnosis.

    Més informació "Cancer cells resistant to treatment are already present before diagnosis of adult leukaemia"

  • 29/10/2020 - Press release

    Spanish Association Against Cancer funds research project from Hospital del Mar-IMIM, INCLIVA and VHIO on the involvement of the tumour microenvironment in colon cancer

    The Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), together with the INCLIVA Health Research Institute, from Hospital Clínic in Valencia, and the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, have obtained funding from the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) for their project entitled Factors derived from the tumoral microenvironment in localised colon cancer: clinical impact and therapeutic implications.  Dr. Clara Montagut, head of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Unit in the Medical Oncology Service at Hospital del Mar, coordinator of the Clinical and Translational Research Group on new therapies and biomarkers in colon and rectal cancer at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and a participant in the study, points out that "The goal of this research is to identify markers that will help us determine whether the cancer will re-emerge in a patient who has undergone colon cancer surgery. This is extremely important for people who have colon cancer, since at present we are unable to predict whether the tumour will reappear or not after surgery.

    Més informació "Spanish Association Against Cancer funds research project from Hospital del Mar-IMIM, INCLIVA and VHIO on the involvement of the tumour microenvironment in colon cancer"

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