Donations
Collaboration Opportunities
Introduction
Today’s research is tomorrows medicine
Cancer is a group of pathologies with a genetic character and a high complexity, which is characterized by abnormal cell proliferation with a capacity to invade vital organs, vital tissues and can be spread throughout the host.
The word cancer refers to a group of diseases, which corresponds to approximately one hundred and fifty different varieties, which imply the transformation, multiplication or the abnormal growth of cells. In Spain these cancer diseases have cost the lives of 94,300 in 2002: 59,200 men and 35,100 women. Cancer is the primary cause of death of men in our country, with a rate of 30.9%, compared to 29.4% corresponding to cardiovascular diseases. For women the primary causes of death are related to cardiovascular diseases, with a rate of 39.2% followed by cancers, with a rate of 20.1% from the total. 31% of the men and 20% of the women that pass away in Spain are due to cancers, or in other words, one of every three men and one of every five women deaths are caused by cancer.
Inspite of the severity of this statistical data, it should be mentioned that the fight against cancer, though scientific research, carried out in the past few years, has increased the chances of cure to 50% approximately. At present, cancer diseases gathers cancerous diseases which have a favourable prognosis with others that its hope of cure will be discovered in the future. In either cases, the research plays or has played a crucial role; since its treatment strictly depends on the knowledge, which is translated into medications, technological diagnosis and better medical practices.
Scientific research plays a main role for all the oncological pathologies with a serious prognostic. The possibility to encounter remedies in the future for these diseases is by knowing more about the origin and evolution of the biological mechanisms that provokes them. Therefore the fight against cancer in such cases can only be through scientific research, because it is the only way to provide new therapies for those cancers that still have no treatment, due to the difficulties in coordinating the different techniques and data that is necessary to reach a cure for these complex diseases.
The research needs funds, research fights against cancer.
The government tries to guarantee the best oncological treatment as well as the development of the scientific research. The medical assistance has an evident importance and therefore the attention rendered to it is great, on the other hand, the funds for scientific research are not sufficient to be able to offer realistic answers in reasonable terms regarding cancer.
In order to have hope, it’s essential to transmit to the society the importance of new knowledge and the value of discovering relevant factors that may assist to explain biological processes that until now are indecipherable.
Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO)
The CNIO was formally constituted in 1998, and after 6 years of scientific activity it has become a centre of reference worldwide in the fight against cancer, through scientific research.
The centre is managed by a foundational model. There is a direct control by the government through their respective organs. The research groups are composed by: scientists, technicians and administrative employees, none government employees (funcionarios), which must undergo periodic quality evaluation to guarantee the best functionality.
The last objective of the CNIO is to transfer its scientific discoveries to the clinical practice, as fast as possible, by new prevention methods, diagnosis and treatment so that the cancer patients can benefit from all the new advances that are produced as soon as possible.
Since the discovery of the first oncogene in the development of cancer by Dr. Barbacid, the director of the CNIO, basic science has been revealing the design mechanism of the disease, the history of its natural process. This has been an intellectual process of understanding and contextualization, and until recently with little practical application.
But this situation has begun to change and we must be patient for the development of new site specific treatments, that allows us to imagine a tomorrow where cancer can be controlled by the knowledge of its complexity and its heterogeneity, we therefore ask you to join the common effort of those who already collaborate with us helping to achieve this.
