2014/10/28

The 7th Fero Grant is awarded to a study by Arkaitz Carracedo concerning new targets in aggressive breast cancer

- The CIC bioGUNE received the award from the cancer research foundation yesterday.

- His project concerns a protein present in almost all the most aggressive breast cancers.

- The jury stressed that "the project is multidisciplinary, highly innovative and with obvious possibilities for clinical application"

(Bilbao, October 2014).- The jury of the Fero Foundation for Oncology Research has awarded the CIC bioGUNE researcher Arkaitz Carracedo a 70.000 euro grant to continue his research into new targets in breast cancers with the worst prognosis. The awards ceremony for the 7th Edition of the Fero Grant was held yesterday in Madrid as part of a fund-raising dinner attended by the president of the Foundation, José Baselga, and numerous representatives of the capital's society.

The winning project studies the relevance and role of the PLM protein, which is found in almost all the most aggressive breast cancers. Dr. Carracedo's team intends to investigate whether inhibition of this protein using a drug that has been used to treat leukaemias for over 10 years may prove beneficial in the fight against aggressive cancers.

According to Dr. Carracedo, "if we can manage to understand the basis of this dependency on PML in aggressive breast tumours, it may prove possible to use PML as an indicator of poor prognosis and treatment resistance, and therefore as a marker to stratify patients for the use of inhibitors of this protein in combination with current therapies".

The project is based on the premise that any cancer in a specific organ, such as the breast, can be sub-divided into different groups on the basis of its pathological characteristics, pattern of evolution and treatment response, which differ in each case. This fact has revolutionised oncological medicine and has led to concepts such as stratification of patients on the basis of the molecular characteristics of their tumour.

Carlos López-Otín, chairman of the Fero Grant jury, notes that "the project is multidisciplinary, highly innovative and has obvious possibilities for clinical application" In addition "the winning project was selected from amongst 45 proposals, many of which correspond to research of a very high scientific level in the various current fields of oncology".

Arkaitz Carracedo holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Complutense University of Madrid. Upon completing his thesis in 2006, he joined the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, subsequently moving to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard Medical School in Boston. He joined CIC bioGUNE in 2009 after having been awarded a Ramón y Cajal fellowship.

About the Fero Foundation

The Fero Foundation, which was founded in 2001, is a non-profit, charitable and scientific organisation dedicated to cancer research and treatment. These annual grants were created in response to the Foundation's commitment to support the training of young cancer researchers and to promote the rapid implementation of scientific breakthroughs in cancer patients as soon as possible. Another of the main objectives of this new grant program is to promote clinical studies to speed up the approval of new drugs in Spain and Europe.

Created by José Baselga - President-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Physician-in-Chief at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Scientific Director of the Vall d'Hebrón Institute of Oncology (VHIO) - and a group of personalities representative of civil and institutional society, the aim of the Fero Foundation is to cover current deficiencies in the conduct of oncology research and to help relieve the social repercussions of this disease.

Throughout its 13 years, the Foundation has helped to support the integration and promotion of cancer research in healthcare institutions in order to facilitate the interaction between basic, translational and clinical research with a special emphasis on promoting the transfer of scientific knowledge to the benefit of cancer patients.