UCAM leads an innovative project to improve the diagnosis of breast cancer
María del Mar Martínez, Coordinator of the Bachelor's Degree in Medicine at the UCAM Cartagena Campus, is leading a pioneering study in Spain to identify the molecules in breast interstitial fluid that are associated with breast cancer in patients at the Santa Lucía Hospital in Cartagena.
The Universidad Católica San Antonio is taking an important step in the fight against breast cancer with the launch of a research project that promises to make progress in early diagnosis. The study, led by María del Mar Martínez, Coordinator of the Bachelor's Degree in Medicine at the Cartagena Campus, aims to improve the diagnostic accuracy of high-risk benign breast tumours, whose progression to cancer is difficult to predict in many cases.
The project, entitled Identification of immunocarcinogenic molecular biomarkers in high-risk breast lesions, focuses on the proteomic analysis of molecules in breast interstitial fluid, particularly in patients whose benign tumours are high-grade because they already show signs of possible progression to cancer. The lecturer explains that one of the strengths of the project lies in its multidisciplinary approach in the UCAM research laboratory, combining methodologies of genetics, biochemistry and bioinformatics in the identification of cancer-promoting molecules and, in addition, its uniqueness lies in the search for these molecules in the extravascular space of the breast, before, during and after the development of a tumour.
The research team includes a multidisciplinary group of experts, including radiologists, pathologists, gynaecologists and breast surgeons. One of them is Dr Fernando Vidal Vanaclocha, UCAM Professor of Molecular and Precision Medicine, who has pointed out that this project is another example of the strong commitment of the university to the clinical development of Precision Medicine and that its results could contribute to improved diagnosis, through molecular biomarkers detectable in the first biopsy taken from any suspicious breast lesion.
This is patient-centred research, for which the project has the collaboration of the Santa Lucía University Hospital in Cartagena, and has been able to get off the ground thanks to funding, for two years, from a unique R&D programme that UCAM manages with the collaboration of the company Inventium, which invests in innovation.