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David Olmos wins 1st Prize for Young Researchers awarded by the AstraZeneca Foundation

30.09.2015

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As recipient of this award, the CNIO Researcher receives a grant from the AstraZeneca Foundation that will provide funding for his line of research on prostate cancer associated with genetic, germline and/or somatic mutations for a period of one year

David Olmos, Head of the CNIO’s Prostate Cancer Clinical Research Unit, collaborates with several Spanish hospitals in the implementation of clinical trials and also coordinates the PROCURE platform, which will attempt to determine why some patients with this type of tumour are resistant to standard therapies

At a ceremony held on September 24 on the premises of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), David Olmos — Head of the Prostate Cancer Clinical Research Unit and of the Associated Clinical Unit CNIO-IBIMA of the Virgen de la Victoria and Regional Malaga University Teaching Hospitals — was awarded 1st Prize for Young Researchers in the oncology field by the AstraZeneca Foundation. The purpose of these awards, which are endorsed by the Institute of Health Carlos III, is to recognise and promote the careers of researchers under the age of 40 who have an outstanding scientific career. Thus, Olmos has received a grant that will provide funds to develop his research work on “Familial and Sporadic Prostate Cancer associated with Genetic, Germline and/or Somatic Mutations, in DNA Repair Genes”, for a period of one year.

After 6 years at the Royal Marsden Hospital of the Institute of Cancer Research (UK), David Olmos returned to Spain in September 2012 to establish the Prostate Cancer Clinical Research Unit, thanks to the support of the CRIS Cancer Foundation and the Spanish Cancer Association (AECC). This Unit differentiates itself from other laboratories in that it focuses on improving treatment for this type of tumour, through the combination of translational and clinical research.

Its strategy is based on two pillars: on the one hand, through clinical trials with new molecules, it seeks to improve the treatment and survival of patients affected by the most aggressive form of prostate cancer – the one that is resistant to the elimination of testosterone (the fuel for this type of tumour). On the other hand, it seeks to identify which tumours will metastasize, in spite of having undergone surgery or radiation therapy. The Unit has identified extremely aggressive inherited mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which could act as markers for diagnosis and prognosis.

Olmos also coordinates the PROCURE platform, which includes the PROSTAC and PROSABI studies, in which nearly 50 Spanish hospitals participate in an attempt to determine why some patients who have developed advanced disease show resistance to the standard drugs used to treat this cancer.

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