9.6 million euros from KWF for new fundamental cancer research

The aim of fundamental research is to understand how cancer cells work, where their weaknesses are and how to tackle them

How does a healthy cell change into a cancer cell? What do cancer cells need to survive? Where are they vulnerable? KWF is investing 9.6 million euros in 16 new studies on these kinds of fundamental cancer issues. Top researchers from all over the Netherlands will bow their heads about this in the coming years. The knowledge they gain is essential for new breakthroughs in the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer.

The awarded projects are part of the second funding round of 2022, intended for fundamental research. The first round focused on applied research. Two more rounds will follow later this year. In addition, KWF makes money available for specific research themes such as palliative care, smart measurement technologies and new medicines for rare cancers.

Fighting cancer is understanding cancer
The aim of fundamental research is to understand how cancer cells work, where their weaknesses are and how they can be tackled. Fundamental research takes place in laboratories and includes the study of genes, proteins and all biological processes that take place in or between (cancer) cells. The resulting knowledge forms the basis of new treatments. The success of immunotherapy, for example, is due to fundamental research into the molecular box of tricks with which cancer cells escape the immune system.

Fundamental research often takes a long time, but is ultimately the source of new breakthroughs and medical-scientific progress. That is why the KWF is a great advocate and convinced funder of this type of research.

All 16 new studies contribute in their own way to a better understanding of cancer. From insight into the development of therapy insensitivity in breast cancer to unraveling the role of the tumor environment in biliary tract cancer. And from ‘double minuscule chromosomes’ as a possible Achilles heel of cancer to a new method for measuring oxygen deficiency in tumours.

A selection from the offer:

Triple negative breast cancer
Thanks to early detection and effective treatment methods, the outlook for women with breast cancer is relatively good. Unfortunately, this is not the case with triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive subtype that often affects young women, grows faster, spreads earlier and is difficult to treat. KWF supports two new studies to find leads for the treatment of this persistent form of breast cancer.

In the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in Amsterdam, Jos Jonkers investigates why checkpoint inhibitors (medicines that help the immune system to attack cancer cells) do not work well in triple negative breast cancer. With this knowledge, he hopes to improve the effect of checkpoint inhibitors and/or to develop new immune therapies.

Rosemary Yu is researching the metabolism of triple negative breast cancer cells at Radboud University in Nijmegen. She wants to use three-dimensional cell cultures (spheroids and organoids) and simulation models to find out which metabolic pathways are crucial for tumor growth and to what extent they are suitable as targets for new drugs.

brain tumors
In the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Leila Akkari investigates the interplay between glioblastomas (aggressive brain tumors) and their environment. Glioblastomas often surreptitiously manipulate their immediate environment. For example, they manipulate certain immune cells (macrophages) not to attack them, but to help them grow. In her research, Akkari focuses on the metabolism of these macrophages: which substances do they need to survive? And is it possible to intervene in the metabolism so that they lose their tumor-promoting effect?

This fundamental research is possible thanks to the participants of Alpe d’HuZes. The 15th edition took place this year, raising no less than 16 million euros for cancer research.

Oxygen-deficient tumors
The research of Anika Nagelkerke (University of Groningen) is also financed from the proceeds of Alpe d’HuZes. She is working on a new method to measure oxygen deficiency in tumors.

Oxygen deficiency often leads to a more aggressive course of cancer, partly because chemotherapy and radiation then work less well. Additional treatments are available for patients with low-oxygen tumors, but there is no good way to select these patients, which means that targeted treatment is not forthcoming.

In a short 1.5-year project, Nagelkerke hopes to demonstrate that oxygen deficiency can be accurately determined using membrane vesicles that cells secrete. If successful, the next step comes closer: a test that shows whether the oxygen deficiency is so great that the patient benefits from additional treatment.

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