19/10/2020 - Press release
Last Friday, the FERO Foundation announced the winners of the 19th FERO Grants and the winner of the 2nd FERO-Mango Breast Cancer Research Project. The grants, worth €80,000 each, are intended to help young researchers develop their translational cancer research projects over a two-year period. "It is expected that 277,394 people will be diagnosed with cancer before the end of 2020. We cannot allow the pandemic scenario in which we find ourselves to detract from the treatment and survival opportunities of the thousands of patients who are currently struggling with cancer. That is why at FERO we are doing everything we can to ensure that COVID-19 affects doctors and patients as little as possible, and that resources continue to reach researchers and centres. One way of achieving this is by continuing to support projects through our grants", explains Sol Daurella, president of the institution.
05/06/2020 - Press release
Detecting the best research talents and providing these people with financial, structural and stability means advancing in cancer care via translational research projects that improve treatment and diagnosis through innovation with clinical application. This is the ambitious goal of the innovative and cutting-edge I CRIS Research Programmes promoted by CRIS against cancer, which have already received their first awards thanks to a meticulous evaluation and selection process led by a prestigious committee of international experts. Over the next five years, the three winning projects will focus on colorectal cancer (the second-ranked cancer in terms of deaths) prostate cancer (diagnosed in 1.3 million people each year), and immunotherapy, a highly innovative type of treatment that is changing the outlook of many cancers. "Research is our life and only through research are we going to find a cure for cancer. With the CRIS Research Programmes we want to detect the best research talent and provide these people with financial and work-related peace of mind. We want to discover and support the Nobel Prize winners of tomorrow and these first CRIS Programmes are just the beginning. In the next edition we will double the number of winners, underlining our commitment to research in spite of the current situation we are experiencing",explains Diego Megía, president of CRIS against cancer.
Més informació "Dr. Clara Montagut, awarded a I CRIS Programme of Excellence in Cancer Research"
12/03/2020 - Press release
Researchers from the Stem Cell and Cancer Group at the Hospital del Mar Institute for Medical Research (IMIM) have led a study in which they have been able to determine the role of two molecules, Dll4 and Notch, and the importance of their relationship in the generation of blood stem cells. This is a very important step in the search to find a viable method for generating this type of cell in the laboratory. The study, which included researchers from the universities of Tel Aviv, Edinburgh, the Sorbonne in Paris, and Cambridge, has been published in The EMBO Journal. The group that led the study is one of the few Spanish teams working in this field, and for years they have been making breakthroughs in their research into blood stem cells and generating these in the laboratory, in the field of regenerative medicine. Right now, "We can make erythrocytes, platelets, a lot of blood products in the lab, but we have never been able to make a cell that has the characteristics of blood stem cells", explains Dr. Anna Bigas, coordinator of the group and first author of the study. Being able to find a method for generating this type of cell in the laboratory would allow patients with diseases like leukaemia, or certain genetic pathologies that affect the blood, and who do not have a compatible donor, to receive a haematopoietic stem cell transplant. In many cases this is the only treatment possible.
Més informació "Key piece in generating blood stem cells in the laboratory discovered"
23/08/2019 - Press release
Researchers from the Molecular Cancer group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and doctors from Hospital del Mar, have demonstrated the effectiveness of a drug for treating metastatic bladder cancer in patients who did not respond to the usual treatment. The preliminary results of an ongoing clinical trial show that TAK-228, a mTORC1/2 protein inhibitor, can stop the progression of the disease. Four of the seven patients in the trial showed positive results. The trial also involved Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, Hospital Universitari Parc Taulí in Sabadell, Clínica Universitaria in Navarre, and Hospital General Universitario in Elche.
Més informació "Effectiveness of a new bladder cancer treatment demonstrated"
10/07/2019 - Press release
A study led by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), has determined, for the first time, the importance of a cell mechanism that may be key to treating metastatic tumours. The work has demonstrated the role a protein, kinase IKKα, plays in the ability of tumour cells to repair themselves. This is a key factor in treatment resistance and tumour spread. The research has been published in the journal Molecular Cell. The researchers analysed the role of this protein, activated by mutations of the BRAF and KRAS oncogenes, present in the majority of the most aggressive tumours. The function of this protein is to facilitate DNA-repair in tumour cells after they have been damaged by chemotherapy, making them more resistant to the action of these drugs. This is key for the treatment approach, since this new study demonstrates, conclusively, that combining a BRAF oncogene inhibitor with chemotherapy deactivates and kills the tumour.
Més informació "Mechanism determined for treating the most aggressive tumours"
29/10/2018 - Press release
The study, published in the journal Cancer Research, shows the pivotal role of the enzyme USP27X in the control of the proliferation, invasion and formation of breast cancer metastasis and opens new pathways to the development of anti-tumour drugs. A team of researchers from the Cancer programme of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), led by Drs Victor M. Diaz, of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and Antonio García de Herreros, of the IMIM, has identified a key enzyme in cancer development called USP27X.
Més informació "Discovery of a key protein in tumour metastasis"
02/08/2018 - Press release
Inhibiting the Jagged 1 protein in mice prevents the proliferation and growth of colon and rectal tumours. What is more, this approach to the disease permits the removal of existing tumours. This is the conclusion of a study led by the Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer and Stem Cells research group from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), directed by Dr Lluís Espinosa, who is also a member of CIBERONC (the Network Centre for Biomedical Research into Cancer), in collaboration with the Pathological Anatomy and Medical Oncology Units at Hospital del Mar, and the IDIBELL-Catalan Oncology Institute. The work has been published in Nature Communications. The researchers took tumours from patients and then implanted them into mice in order to analyse the role of this protein in cancer cell proliferation. Jagged 1 is essential for cancer cells due to its role in activating the so-called Notch cell-signalling pathway. Generally speaking, Notch inhibits cell differentiation, in other words, a cell's ability to become a mature cell that can no longer proliferate. In the case of colorectal tumours, the activation of this signalling pathway favours their proliferation and growth.
Més informació "Key piece identified for slowing a colorectal cancer subtype"
03/11/2017 - Press release
Dr. Joaquim Bellmunt, director of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and Associate Professor at the University of Harvard, at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, is one of the first authors of a new international study that has mapped genome of bladder cancer. As part of the TCGA project (The Cancer Genome Atlas), the researchers have reported their final analysis of 412 tumour samples, providing the most accurate genetic description to date of this type of cancer. This will enable the analysis of new personalised treatment hypotheses for this disease. The study was published in the journal Cell. Dr. Bellmunt has stated that thanks to this work, we now "have a much broader perspective on the different varieties of urinary bladder cancer and its genetic alterations". Even so, the head of the IMIM stresses that "it is necessary to continue researching the best treatments and confirm hypothesised new treatment methods."
20/02/2017 - Press release
An international multicentre study led by cancer specialist Joaquim Bellmunt, director of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and coordinator of the IMIM's Genitourinary Oncology research group, has demonstrated the effectiveness of immunotherapy in treating advanced bladder cancer when the initial chemotherapy using cisplatin no longer works. It is the first time patient survival has been significantly prolonged in this kind of situation. The treatment also improves the quality of life of patients with respect to chemotherapy. This phase III study published in the highly prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, a benchmark for advances in applied medicine, becomes a reference work as until now there had been no significant breakthroughs in bladder cancer treatment that could be applied when the first option was no longer effective. These results provide evidence supporting the use of Pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, as a new standard treatment for advanced bladder cancer, as has also been demonstrated for other types of tumour such as melanoma and lung cáncer.
26/04/2016 - Press release
The expansion of the genetic test allows the detection of newly identified mutations by a team of oncologists at Hospital del Mar and the IMIM that explain a further 10-15% of the resistance to a group of drugs developed by colorectal tumours The resistance caused by EGFR mutations described by the same team of oncologist has been shown to be important in more of 25% of the patients treated using anti-EGFR therapy This work is a clear example of how in just a short time the results of a research project have been transferred to industry, in this case the Belgian multinational Biocartis, and how they have an almost immediate application in patients, improving and personalising colon cancer treatments The patent for the first test was obtained in 2013, the detection kit was marketed in 2014, and it has now been expanded, with a new licence, to include the newly-detected mutations
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