Health and Research. The biggest challenge in recent history
7 April 2020
First Division Investigation
7 April 2020
This young researcher belongs to the Aragonese Foundation for Research and Development (ARAID) and is Head of the Molecular Oncology Group at the Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón) and whose goal is to achieve a cure for Cancer.
What are you researching now?
The main line of our laboratory is the virtual biopsy. The question we asked ourselves was: What if we could have some of the information we have from a biopsy but by taking a photo? We make contrasts so that they stick to a tumor and tell us if it will respond better to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or an experimental treatment. We have focused on three of the worst cancers: glioblastoma multiforme, pancreatic adenocarcinoma and diffuse truncal glioma, which is one that occurs in children and cannot be biopsied. We also carry out other projects together with other researchers, such as the design of new immunotherapies or searching for compounds that could become new drugs.
And this experimentation could be done 30 years ago?
No, because to advance in research what you need is knowledge and technology, and at that time we did not have either.
What was the investigation like?
I was little, but I really like the history of science. When I was born, Mariano Barbacid discovered that many of
our genes were damaged and mutations were formed, that cancer was due to mutations in DNA. In the year that EL PERIÓDICO DE ARAGÓN was born, there was an international agreement led by the US, and in which Spain did not enter, to sequence the human genome.
What did you suppose?
The genetic material is three billion chemical letters, to understand 1.500 Don Quixotes. Now we know how important it is to know what these letters are and what function each one has. Cancer is a disease of genes and until 2001 there was no draft genome. The first one cost 3.800 billion dollars and now it should take us a month to do it and it should cost us about 100.000 euros. On the internet you find offers for 400 euros and they will do it for you in an afternoon. We begin to be able to generate and accumulate knowledge of what genetic alterations our cells have when they become cancerous in order to seek a solution.
Was nothing known about cancer until 2000?
In 2000 we had the first draft of the genome. In 2010 the technology had dropped in price and cancer genomes were released. The projects were worth millions and included large international consortia. Spain participated with Carlos López Otín and Elías Campos, both Aragonese, who sequenced the genome of chronic lymphatic leukemia. From 2010 to 2015 they analyzed them. The project is still recent but until 2015, which is not long ago, large international consortia had to endorse the projects. Now the technology has been democratized and any laboratory could do it or order it.
How was cancer treated if it was not known?
Before, chemicals were put in a mouse that deformed a tumor. There have been things that have worked well. Some chemotherapies are very aggressive but they have worked, and what has been done is to improve them, remove side effects and make them more specific. In the 2000s, targeted therapies were born. If the cancer is due to mutations and we know them, we can correct them. The problem with cancer is always the same: tumors generate resistance. Now we begin to understand why, because they are not a single type of tumor cells. Having all this knowledge allows us to think that we are going to have more therapies in a very short time and that we will be able to diagnose better and provide better treatments.
In what line is it investigated?
In several. One is towards early detection, because there are many tumors that if detected in time can be eliminated. Now that the genome is cheaper we can read DNA released by the tumor in the blood and detect mutations, but we can still see very few. If we can detect tumors in time we can greatly improve survival. Research is moving towards increasingly earlier diagnoses, because prevention is better than cure.
