Flor Navarro Negredo: “The help from the AECC has allowed me to work on the project I wanted and return to Aragón”

The newspaper 'El Diario de Teruel' interviews Flor Navarro Negredo, researcher in the group of Metabolism and Tumor Stem Cells. She is one of the IIS Aragón researchers who has received one of the postdoctoral grants from the AECC

La Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) presented last week its Research Grants awarded in Aragon. In total, there have been thirteen since 2017 and they represent 1.251.716 Euros. From Teruel, in 2023, 123.985 euros have been allocated to research, thanks to its 5.213 members and the solidarity of the people of Teruel who participate in the different campaigns promoted by the entity. Among the scholarship recipients is Flor Navarro Negredo, of Teruel origin, who has received a postdoctoral help to research pancreatic tumors, which highlights the importance of this support that has allowed him to research the project he wanted and return to Aragon.

What is the line of cancer research you are working on?

I am an immunologist by specialization. She did her doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology and her thesis was on immunology and immunotherapy - which consists of studying the immune cells of cancer patients and seeing how we can use or improve them to fight cancer - in this case pancreatic cancer. . In December, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Patricia Sancho, at the Aragón Health Research Institute. My project consists of studying how the fat metabolism of pancreatic cancer affects the immune response of patients against this tumor. In previous studies, it was shown that fat metabolism makes pancreatic cancer tumors more immunoevasive - meaning they hide from the immune system - so we want to block this metabolism in different ways to improve the anti-tumor immune response. .

Why do you focus your research on pancreatic tumors?

It is one of the cancers that currently does not have any type of treatment that improves patient survival by more than 5%. It is diagnosed very late, at a very advanced stage and in a metastatic phase. It is very difficult to treat and the current treatments only improve patients' survival by a few months. In some tumors such as breast cancer or leukemia, survival has increased greatly in recent years, compared to the past. On the other hand, this has not been achieved in pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer research is super necessary, we have to make a lot of effort. If the incidence continues to increase as it is now, it could become the second or third cause of cancer-related death in Spain and in the world.

Immunotherapy is greatly improving the life expectancy and quality of life of cancer patients.

Yes, there have been a lot of advances in the last 10-15 years, since the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors was approved in both the United States and Spain, there has been a boom in immunotherapy and new ones have been created. forms of immunotherapy that are being tested, both in clinical trials and in laboratories. A lot of progress has been made in recent years.

What does AECC support mean for your research?

For me it meant being able to join Dr. Patricia Sancho's laboratory. It also meant, in my case, returning to Aragon. She did her doctoral thesis in the US and for the last four years I have been working in Pamplona at the Applied Medical Research Center. It has served to research what I wanted, return home and improve my CV exponentially because receiving one of these highly competitive grants is very important to then get grants in the future and the peace of mind of spending four years researching what I like and in what I think is necessary in society. It is wonderful.

Is this type of support important for Aragón to be a reference in research?

It is super important that all the people who are doing the doctorate have finished the doctorate - in Aragon and outside of Aragon - ask for this type of aid because María Sancho and I, who have received the AECC postdoctoral scholarship in 2023, have been the first to Aragón's history in receiving this scholarship. Postdoctoral grants have never been given in Aragon and we have very good and competitive groups that are eligible for these grants and very good students. People have very good CVs and it is necessary that they ask for them and the more they give to Aragón, the better.

Do you have Teruel roots, do you maintain contact with the city?

Yes. All my paternal family is from Teruel: my grandparents, my uncles, my father. We have a great relationship with Teruel. We had a house there and we have been going there a lot. My father studied Chemistry and was a professor at the University and stayed in Zaragoza. We have visited many towns, we have spent the summer in Bronchales, in Peralejos de las Truchas... We are very mountaineers and we have been to the Sierra de Camarena, in Orihuela... Furthermore, Teruel was a source of inspiration for me in the field of science. When I was little I remember collecting fossils and also visiting Dinópolis: some of my scientific development was developed with Teruel.

Source: Isabel Muñoz (Diario de Teruel)