The breast cancer Today it occupies number 1 among the diseases that affect women, both for its incidence and for the mortality it generates. “In the year 2020, 2.3 million cases of breast cancer were detected worldwide in women, of which some 700,000 died. This, despite the advances in research and in treatments and therapies, continues to be outrageous and is one of the reasons why we must get serious and continue working on prevention and research,” says the Dr. Maria Vivanco, director of the cancer heterogeneity laboratory at the Biogune Cooperative Research Center in Derio. A laboratory that this past Friday received a donation of 10,000 euros raised by the Muskiz Breast Cancer Association (ACCM)which on October 23 hosted a massive pink tide in favor of raising awareness about this disease and to support the research being carried out in the Biscayan laboratory.
Vivanco, a graduate of the University of the Basque Country and with extensive research experience in Switzerland, England and the US, has led a working group at CIC Biogune since 2005 characterizing mammary stem cells and examining their role in resistance to therapy that is seen in some tumors or recurrence. “We have been studying cancer in general for many years and, for example, If we think of 40 years ago, we know that what then was 40% of women who survived breast cancer, today we know that it is more than 85%. The survival rate has doubled and it continues to improve, but what we also know is that there are a significant number of cases in which the tumors reappear. It seems that the tumor has healed but after a while the tumor reappears again, which is called a recurrence, since the tumor has developed resistance to the treatment, to the therapy that has been offered. This can give rise to a more aggressive tumor that causes worsening, which ultimately ends up causing death. This recurrence is, let’s say, one of the main focuses of the laboratory, because some tumors disappear while others resist and breast cancer reappears,” Vivanco reported.
Multifactorial
One of the problems posed by this research stems from the very fact that breast cancer is a disease whose origin is multifactorial. “The factors, already within the investigation, are multiple. It is a combination of various factors such as genetics, which is known to occur in only 10 to 15% of all tumor cases; but also Factors such as environmental factors, hormonal factors, whether they have had children or not, whether they have been breastfed, diet, exercise,… are multifactorial.l, it is more a set of diseases than a single disease”, summarized Dr. Vivanco who thanked the involvement of the ACCM of Muskiz and its important financial support.
“We know that it is a drop in the sea of investment needs to carry out this type of research, but there would be no sea without these precious drops that have come hand in hand with an intense effort to raise awareness and awareness of the disease,” stressed the researcher of this group of the Biogune de Derio which collaborates with several Basque hospitals and with Acambi.
During her visit to Muskiz, the doctor stressed the need to promote prevention. “It is very important to detect and diagnose it as soon as possible since tumors that have received an early diagnosis generally heal better,” she said.
