The Spanish Cancer Association (AECC) has granted funding of a million euros over 5 years to an advanced endometrial cancer research project on which five clinical and translational research groups are working, including MD Anderson Foundation Spain, represented by Dr. Gema Moreno-Bueno, chief advisor of the Translational Research Laboratory at MD Anderson Foundation Spain.
The project, coordinated by Dr. Xavier Matias-Guiu of the Bellvitge Institute of Biomedical Research (Idibell-ICO), seeks to determine the molecular bases of endometrial cancer in advanced stages with the aim of identifying biomarkers that may lead to the development of effective treatment for patients with the disease. Endometrial cancer, whose incidence is between 10-20 in 100,000 people, is the most common gynecologic tumor in women and, when in advanced stages, the prognosis is not good.
In addition to the ICO-Idibell and MD Anderson Foundation Spain, the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital Research Institute and the Ramon y Cajal University Hospital Health Research Institute (IRYCIS) are also part of the project.
The cooperative group, which has been working since 2011 when the first funds were granted by the AECC, will continue working together thanks to further funding, which will enable the group to be consolidated into a multidisciplinary group with a common goal – “to make progress in learning about the molecular bases of endometrial cancer and transfer the group’s findings to the clinical environment to consolidate the diagnosis and treatment of the disease”.