Dr. James L. Mulshine, head of the Intervention area of the U.S. National Cancer high school , gave a lecture lecture at the symposium on "Frontiers in Oncology", held at the research center Applied Medicine of the University of Navarra on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the School of Medicine. The expert stated that "one out of every two smokers dies from smoking. The programs of study show that this is not only a statistical relationship, but a causal one".

In this sense, he stated categorically that "tobacco is the most lethal commercial product that exists". However, he pointed out that in order to know the Degree danger to health, factors such as the age of initiation of the habit, the number of cigarettes consumed and the length of time smoked throughout life must be considered.

Regarding treatments for lung cancer, he pointed out that it is a difficult disease to treat, although he was optimistic about new therapies, especially those based on improving knowledge on the biology of the disease. "Early diagnostic techniques based on imaging are being developed, which make it possible to detect lung tumors of reduced size. Thanks to them, many images are obtained that can be integrated into the computer with computer techniques and allow a three-dimensional reconstruction of the tumor." He also pointed out that this technique has the advantage of making it possible to know what is happening in the patient at a given moment and to follow its evolution after a few months.

International cooperation

Dr. Alexander M. Eggermon, Professor of Oncological Surgery at the Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center in Rotterdam, pointed out that in order to make progress in the treatment of patients it is necessary to "work on new treatment modalities and new drugs, which requires infrastructures where the research and the patients are related". Thus, he highlighted the work of the research center Applied Medicine of the University of Navarra in this aspect and expressed his wish for it to stand out among the institutions that work with the European Organization for the research and treatment of Cancer.

With respect to international cooperation, Dr. Luis Montuenga, director of the area of Oncology of the CIMA of the University of Navarra, announced that it will be materialized in two months in a application to the European Union to create a network of centers in the continent "that covers all aspects, technical and social, that have to do with the early detection of lung cancer".

Finally, Dr. Salvador Martín Algarra, director of department of Oncology at the University Clinic of the University of Navarra, emphasized the relevance of "collaborating with other centers, which allows us to study a large number of patients issue , and to have information from research basic and clinical information for the development of new techniques".

In addition to the four conference on Biomedicine, which correspond to the areas of research of the CIMA of the University of Navarra, among the events of the fiftieth anniversary of the School of Medicine are the VI Eduardo Ortiz de Landázuri Memorial Lecture and the presentation of a book and a DVD.