2015_09_24_ayuda_aecc_cun_y_cima
A project of research from Clínica Universidad de Navarra and CIMA receives one of the most important grants of the AECC.
The team of researchers led by Dr. Ignacio Melero, specialist in Immunology at the Clinic and CIMA, will study the stimulation of the immune system against breast and colon tumors.
Queen Letizia has presided in Burgos the act of submission of financial aid to the research of the association Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC) to 14 projects that are world references in research against cancer and approaching tumors with poor survival.
One of them is led by Dr. Ignacio Melero, co-director of the Immunology and Immunotherapy Service of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and of the research center Médica Aplicada (CIMA). Other researchers from both centers also participate in this project : Carlos Alfaro, Inmaculada Rodríguez, José Luis Pérez Gracia, Javier Rodríguez, Carmen Oñate and María Rodríguez, Pedro Berraondo, Ángela Aznar, José Ignacio Quetglas, Arantza Azpilicueta and Elixabet Bolaños.
Its research will focus on finding out how to stimulate the immune system itself to eliminate cancerous tissue in the most aggressive breast and colon tumors with no successful therapeutic alternatives. The AECC has endowed this project with 1.2 million euros for promote the research between different teams (Clínica Universidad de Navarra, research center Applied Medicine -CIMA, Pompeu Fabra University, Vall D'Hebron, Puerta de Hierro Hospital and Hospital del Mar).
About the projectIn the treatment of breast and colon cancer, antibodies are used that react with antigens (substances that provoke the immune reaction) present on the surface of cancer cells. One of the mechanisms of action of these antibodies is their ability to activate NK (Natural Killer) cells so that they are able to destroy tumor cells. This project aims to exploit the knowledge of these mechanisms to enhance their therapeutic effect, combining treatments that increase the issue of NK cells, repress the mechanisms that inhibit them and enhance those that stimulate them.
"The goal is to devise a strategy in which the Natural Killer cells are infused back into the patient with enhanced capabilities to recognize and destroy the tumor," explains Dr. Melero, an international expert in cancer immunotherapy and researcher also from the high school of research Sanitaria de Navarra (IDISNA). In this way, they study the immune system's own capacity to destroy or slow cancer progression.
"The financial aid of the AECC will make our research a reality because we will be able to take the programs of study that we have developed in the laboratories to the clinical internship and that can be tested on real patients," says Pedro Berraondo, team member and researcher of CIMA.