AECC commits €18 million to research into small cell lung and liver cancer

One of the grants is for a physician-led small cell lung cancer research project. Luis Paz-Ares and Marcos Malumbres, has an amount of 10 million euros. Other support is for liver cancer research carried out by doctors Josep M. Llovet and José R. Bustelo, and has funding of 8 million euros. Both grants will be for 5 and 6 years respectively.

These awards, presented this Wednesday at the Association’s headquarters in Madrid, are one of the main activities through which the Association aims to achieve 70% cancer survival by 2030. In addition, they strive to bring research directly to patients, improving their access to research results by having teams of both research staff and clinicians with a broad national distribution.

“The association has set a target of 70 percent survival, and more research is needed to achieve this goal, especially for cancers with low survival rates. For this reason, we launched this call, which in turn encourages territorial cooperation to ensure equality of patients in access to results,” said Durante, president of the Spanish Association Against Cancer and the Ramón Reyes Association Scientific Foundation.

small cell lung cancer

One of the grants was awarded to the SOSCLC – AECC: Small Cell Lung Cancer project. From biological networks to personalized therapy.” The goal is to develop new treatments and improve the survival and quality of life of these patients by creating a national and international network to study this tumor at the molecular and epidemiological level. Another goal is to involve patients in research and raise public awareness about this cancer, which is still so little understood.

Small cell lung cancer is one of the deadliest types. In most cases, it is diagnosed when it has already spread. At the moment, only 3% of patients live more than five years. The incidence of small cell lung cancer in Spain is more than 4000 new cases per year. Although smoking is the main risk factor, there are other possible environmental and occupational factors that have been poorly studied.

The coordinators and principal investigators of this study are Dr. Luis Paz-Ares from the 12 October Hospital Research Institute in Madrid and Dr. Marcos Malumbres from the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) in Barcelona. “We need to give patients more options. If we want to be positive, we must highlight that there have been some advances in recent years, such as the role of immunotherapy in pathology,” Paz-Ares emphasized, adding that this will help “to improve the coordination of research.”

The project, with a total funding of 10 million euros and a duration of 5 years, involves 40 research groups from 15 different provinces of Spain (A Coruña, Barcelona, ​​Vizcaya, Cadiz, Huelva, Las Palmas, Madrid, Malaga). (Murcia, Asturias, Navarre, Salamanca, Seville, Valencia, Zaragoza) in 31 institutes and brings together 330 scientists, of whom 58 percent are women.

“Without these types of projects, I wouldn’t be here. I have benefited from the research of many people and now hope that others will benefit from it too. Many people who do not have access to treatment will benefit,” Kuka said. patient with breast cancer.

Liver cancer

Other support was provided to the project “ASPIRE-AECC: Improving the survival of patients with liver cancer by combining immunotherapy and surgery”, which aims to conduct clinical trials to increase the survival of patients undergoing surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma. were treated with immunotherapy before and after surgery.

The project will also identify markers that can predict response to treatment to guide more personalized therapy, as well as identify alternative treatments for patients who are resistant to immunotherapy treatments. The study, which will last 6 years, will be coordinated and led by Dr. Josep M. Llovet from the Clinic-IDIBAPS hospital in Barcelona and Dr. José R. Bustelo from the Cancer Research Center of Salamanca (CSIC – University). Salamanca). The total amount of this assistance is 8 million euros.

Currently, approximately 6,500 cases of liver cancer are diagnosed annually, with hepatocellular carcinoma being the most common. This type of tumor is very aggressive: survival rate is currently below 30%. Surgical removal of the tumor or liver transplantation are the main current treatments, although these are effective in only 25% of patients.

Another problem affecting the survival rate of patients with these tumors is that they usually recur in 30-50% of cases three years after surgery. “Patient relapse rates are around 30 percent within a year, we want that to increase to 15 or 20 percent.” Reducing it by half is the most ambitious goal that we are pursuing with this assistance,” Llovet emphasized.

Clinical trials will take place at 15 hospital sites, and laboratory studies will take place at 10 basic translational research centers. In total, 40 doctors and researchers from 25 centers located in 15 provinces will take part in the project: A Coruña, Badajoz, Barcelona, ​​Vizcaya, Cantabria, Cordoba, Girona, Lleida, Malaga, Madrid, Navarra, Salamanca, Seville, Valencia and Zaragoza.