More funds for pediatric cancer research

The objective of the multidisciplinary team, with researchers from i3S and Ipatimup Diagnostics (Jorge Lima, Paula Soares, and José Carlos Machado) and doctors from Centro Hospitalar Universitário S. João is to validate liquid biopsies as a source of genetic material for the molecular diagnosis and monitoring of pediatric brain tumors in order to avoid surgery and all the risks that this entails.

Liquid biopsies, explains Jorge Lima, from the Cancer Signalling & Metabolism research group and the Research and Innovation Unit “are biopsies obtained from circulating fluids, namely cerebrospinal fluid and blood and are particularly relevant in pediatric brain tumors, given the risks involved in obtaining brain tissue biopsy”. In this way he adds “when it is not possible or desirable to operate, we also improve the quality of life for these children”.

In addition, “with the liquid biopsy we also intend to identify possible targets for personalized treatment and improve monitoring of patients, even when they are biopsied, enabling the early diagnosis of relapses in cases where the images leave doubts”, adds Maria João Gil da Costa, a pediatric oncologist who follows many of these children.

In this study, adds Jorge Lima, “we will include all new patients with an inaugural diagnosis of pediatric brain tumors, as well as patients with a previous diagnosis, but whose disease is progressing, that is, severe and/or unresectable. We foresee that the project will develop over a year and have 20 to 30 patients”.

On the same occasion, LPCC and Lions Portugal also rewarded a project led by researcher Célia Gomes from the Institute of Clinical and Biomedical Research (iCBR) of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, in partnership with Antero Abrunhosa of the Institute of Applied Nuclear Sciences to Health (ICNAS). This project aims to develop an innovative diagnostic tool based on exosomes, for the detection of pulmonary micrometastases in osteosarcoma, using a non-invasive positron emission tomography (PET) technique. The two projects received a total value of 27 thousand euros.