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06/03/2023 - General information

Doctors Pilar Navarro and Neus Martínez, Winners of the Vanguardia de la Ciencia Award

The popular vote has chosen the pancreatic cancer research of the two researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute as the most outstanding among the eight finalists. This recognition highlights their work and female talent. The award ceremony will take place on April 26th at La Pedrera.

The study led by Doctors Pilar Navarro and Neus Martínez, researchers from the New Cancer Molecular Targets Research Group at IMIM-Hospital del Mar/Associated Unit IIBB-CSIC, which identified a new potential diagnostic marker in pancreatic cancer, has won the Vanguardia de la Ciencia award, organized by the newspaper La Vanguardia and the Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation. The award ceremony will be held on April 26th at La Pedrera's auditorium.

The winners were chosen by La Vanguardia's readers from the eight candidates selected by a jury, who highlighted the research quality and the fact that it was led by female scientists. They received 21% of the votes. This honorary award aims to give visibility to research carried out in the country.

Advance in Pancreatic Cancer Research

The study led by IMIM-Hospital Mar in collaboration with IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS, Hospital del Mar, and in cooperation with Hospital Clínic, identified a new marker for early diagnosis that could be used in the most common type of pancreatic cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The work was published in the eBioMedicine journal, part of The Lancet group.

This research investigated the utility of detecting a soluble fragment of the AXL receptor in blood, a protein found on the surface of tumor cells, to identify patients with pancreatic cancer among healthy individuals or patients with other pancreatic pathologies. It was determined that AXL functioned as a plasma biomarker, indicating the presence of tumor cells. At this stage, a prospective validation study of the biomarker with an expanded number of patients needs to be initiated to confirm its potential utility in clinical practice. It's important to note that currently, no biomarker exists for the early diagnosis of this condition, which is currently the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in developed countries.

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