Cancer research receives a financial boost

The Cancer Research Centre at the University of Salamanca and the CSIS receive €1.2 million from the Spanish Cancer Association.

Through the research group directed by Xosé Bustelo, the Cancer Research Centre (CIC, a joint centre of the University of Salamanca and CSIS) has received €1.2M from the Spanish Cancer Association (AECC) to look for new therapeutic targets to help develop treatments against breast cancer.

The project headed by Bustelo continues the same work that produced promising results in May 2014, which identified a new therapeutic target against the most aggressive forms of breast cancer. The new funding is expected to enable the identification of new clinically relevant targets to treat patients by using an innovative and more effective therapeutic approach against precursor cells which have been resistant to both conventional and cutting-edge chemotherapy.

A researcher in the laboratory of Xosé Bustelo.
A researcher in the laboratory of Xosé Bustelo.

The foundation of this new work is the identification of a new oncogene called RRAS2, which appears to act as an autonomous ‘transducer’ in the development of a wide variety of tumors. Scientists have also discovered that the elimination of the RRAS2 protein avoids the growth of cancer and metastases formation in epidemiologically relevant tumors such as breast tumors and haematopoietic cells.

 

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