Group co-leader: Isabel Álvarez, M.D.

Donostialdea IHO E-mail isabelmanuela.alvarezlopez@osakidetza.eus

Group co-leader: María Muñoz Caffarel, PhD.

Biodonostia HRI E-mail maria.caffarel@biodonostia.org

Strategic Objectives

• To contribute to the development of programmes which optimise a personalised approach to the treatment of breast cancer patients, taking into account the specific characteristics of both the tumour and the cancer patient.
• Clinical research: To continue and promote the creation of clinical trials to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, and more specifically studies into new drugs.
• Developing new programmes for translational research, either as independent studies or as studies in parallel to or associated with clinical trials. The goal is to develop and implement new molecular techniques that may be diagnostically and predictively relevant to the optimisation of treatments suitable to each molecular subtype.
• Development of studies in the areas of epidemiology and the follow-up of breast cancer patients.

Main lines of research

• Study of the presence and prognostic significance of status heterogeneity in the receptors between the primary tumour and the synchronous lymph node metastasis in hormone receptor-positive breast cancers.
• Circulating tumoural stem cells in breast cancer.
• Comparison between the clinical-pathological features of interval breast cancers (IC) and those detected in the programmed screening among the participants in the Basque Health Service’s breast cancer detection programme.
• Use of next-generation sequencing technology to analyse genetic differences between the primary tumour and metastatic sites.
• Identification and validation of circulating miRNA/RNA as non-invasive markers for breast cancer.
• Use of shRNA/miRNA coding viral libraries in order to identify factors of resistance to drugs and new therapies in breast cancer.