Biomedical Research in Urology : VHIR Annual Report 2020

Oncology

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Overview

In 2020, the Area has been composed by eight groups addressing main unsolved issues in cancer, covering the fields of child and adolescent cancer, melanoma, gynecology, urology, cancer stem cells and molecular mechanisms of the tumor pathologies, as well nanomedicine. We work in close collaboration with the corresponding departments at the Hospital. This provides a unique opportunity to tackle the abovementioned pathologies during the entire course of the disease, from diagnosis (a focus and strength of our Area) to personalized treatment (gathering important international impact during 2020 in the field of child cancer). Our research in 2020 has been relevant also in the field of the use of nanotechnology in biomedical applications to improve therapeutic strategies and diagnostics. Despite, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Area has kept active at virtual shared activities and ONCO-VHIR seminars and the organization of the World Cancer Day event to get closer to the society. During 2020 in-Campus collaborations with VHIO have been strengthen and internalization of our research has been amplified. It is also noteworthy the shared scientific production in terms of publications between different groups of the Area and the stable collaborations between groups that have consolidated during these period.

Publications

174
total
926
impact factor
5.32
average impact factor

Group Leader: Anna Santamaría, Juan Morote

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Research Areas

In 2020 our group has pushed forward in the laboratory three main areas of research with the corresponding financial support and intellectual protection of the results: (i) the use of radiogenomics and artificial intelligence to accurately discriminate between indolent and aggressive prostate cancer (PCa); (ii) the study of new strategies to improve PCa diagnosis and management of BRCA-2 carriers (both from a clinical perspective with the implementation by Dr. Planas of a PCa-focused genetic-clinics alongside the general pre-existing PCa clinics and a deep molecular study of such patients in the laboratory); (iii) the study of key mitotic regulators with a relevant role in the acquisition of resistance to hormone therapy and their potential as new therapeutic targets for treating the most aggressive tumors (with a focus on kinases and co-regulators, kinesins and ubiquitin ligases). We have generated models of primary cultures ex vivo and studied the mechanisms of progression and resistance to therapy. We have enlarged our collection of PCa liquid biopsies (blood, urine) and tissues (radical prostatectomies and biopsies) and provided with some of these samples to Joaquin Mateo’s group at VHIO for collaborative patient-derived patients (PDX) collection.

Remarkable intra Area collaborations in 2020 have been those with the groups of Biomedical Research in Gynecology; Research in Child and Adolescent cancer group; and The Molecular Pathology group with successful joint publications and patents.

VHIR Annual Report 2020

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