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PRESS RELEASE
The BBVA Foundation Tumor Biomarkers Research
Program unites the efforts of Massachusetts
General Hospital and Vall d’Hebrón Hospital in
the search for personalized cancer therapies
Madrid, November 15, 2011.- The President of the BBVA Foundation, Francisco González,
Josep Baselga, Chief of Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Cancer Center (MGHCC), and Andrés de Kelety, Managing Director at the Vall d’Hebrón
Institute of Oncology (VHIO) in Barcelona, today signed the agreement creating the
BBVA Foundation Tumor Biomarkers Research Program. Also attending the event was the
Foundation’s Director, Mr. Rafael Pardo.
Under the terms of this agreement, the BBVA Foundation will fund the collaborative efforts
of MGHCC and VHIO to develop personalized therapies for cancer patients through
biomarker research. The program will proceed along two main lines – new drug discovery
and the improvement or optimized use of existing pharmaceutical therapies – with the
common goals of securing more effective, individually tailored treatments and of
accelerating their translation to the clinic, and thereby patient care.
In the oncology field, biomarkers are biological characteristics of malignant cells that are
measurable in tumor tissue and, at times, in blood. Biomarkers can measure alterations of
the genome, of the proteins encoded by the genome and at times enzymes or
metabolites. The information they give can be prognostic – how the disease is likely to
evolve – or predictive – how it may respond to a given treatment. Studies in this case will
initially center on colorectal, breast and lung cancer, with the intention of expanding into
other types like melanomas, lymphomas or prostate cancer.
The BBVA Foundation will provide 2.5 million euros funding over the next five years to
facilitate synergies between researchers at MGHCC and VHIO under the direction of
doctors Josep Baselga and Daniel Haber (MGH) and Josep Tabernero (VHIO). This sum
may be revised upward during the life of the program in the light of emerging research
needs and according to the economic circumstances of the time.
The grant will be split equally between the two centers, with MGHCC matching the BBVA
Foundation’s contribution. Both institutions are committed to sharing and exchanging
findings and will place their biomarker platforms in genomics, proteomics and molecular
pathology at the disposal of the new program.
The agreement also includes an express undertaking by the parties to share their results
with the rest of the scientific community and, by this means, hasten their availability to
cancer patients.
“We are grateful as well as strongly impressed that the BBVA Foundation is not only
maintaining but enlarging its support for this program, along with its broader commitment
to research in general, and cancer research in particular, at a time of economic
difficulties,” declared Dr. Baselga.
The BBVA Foundation President was quick to concur, while adding: “Spain cannot afford
to slip behind in an area where it has already attained a position of some prominence,
and where research results can drive tangible improvements in the diagnostic and
therapeutic options available to patients.”
In today’s climate of austerity, Francisco González stressed the need to ”preserve the
core elements of an economy like Spain’s which has no other route map but knowledge
and innovation.” In the case of the BBVA Foundation, this translates as “a multipronged
program of support for research and the creation of knowledge-driven public goods, with
a focus on areas, like health and environmental conservation, in the foreground of
citizens’ preferences and expectations.” On the topic of the BBVA Foundation Tumor
Biomarkers Research Program, he explained that “the international cooperation model
underlying this program is not a novelty for the BBVA Foundation, but rather reflects our
conviction that the best research is currently being done in cross-border networks
involving hubs of excellence.”
The “signature” of cancer
Biomarkers are a mainstay of today’s cancer research. Each tumor carries specific
alterations that can be detected though molecular testing. Biomarkers are obtained by
checking this information against the patient’s own genetic traits to determine the
“signature” or way the tumor manifests in his or her body. It is this identification that opens
the door to targeted therapies.
The BBVA Foundation Tumor Biomarker Research Program pursues therapies tailored not
only to the type of cancer but also the specific molecular characteristics of each
patient’s tumor. Among its objectives are the design of protocols for clinical trials that
allow patients to benefit from newly discovered drugs earlier in the disease process, and
the development of tools to measure individual patient’s responses to targeted cancer
drugs.
The idea is to have clinical trials where patients are recruited not for their type of tumor,
as normally occurs, but for the type of molecular or genetic alteration linked to the tumor
they are suffering.
Baselga is convinced that both new drug discovery and the optimization of existing
treatments require “a close partnership with biotech and pharmaceutical companies in
order to improve clinical trials and expedite development of new targeted drugs, so
patients get the benefits as quickly as possible.”
For further information please contact the BBVA Foundation Communication Department (+34 91
374 52 10/+34 91 537 37 69 or [email protected]) or visit www.fbbva.es
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