#CRSy23 #BrainBodyWorld23 aims to foster the discussion of how internal states, such as hunger, thirst, and emotion, are generated and regulated by the brain, and how they interact with the body and the external world to drive behaviour. 

Maria (fictional name) has a scheduled surgical intervention to remove a malignant tumour from one of her breasts. She is the pre-op room, waiting to go into the OR, where the surgery will be performed under general anaesthetics. No wonder she feels anxious, her heart beats very fast, and she is unable to think about anything else right now. Her blood pressure is also going up.

The second edition of the European Researchers’ Night (ERN), organised by the RAISE - Researchers in Action for Inclusion in Science and Education consortium will be held on the 29th of September 2023 and will, once again, take place at the Champalimaud Foundation (Lisbon).

The main goal of this public event, organised by consortium partners, Native Scientists, Champalimaud Foundation and Instituto de Medicina Molecular, is to promote, actively and effectively, diversity and inclusion in science and education.

A equipa de enfermagem do Centro Clínico Champalimaud organiza anualmente um congresso que pretende ser um momento de partilha de experiências entre profissionais de saúde e de promoção da reflexão sobre a prática clínica ao serviço dos doentes oncológicos e suas famílias.

Carla Malveiro is responsible, at the Champalimaud Foundation (FC), for implementing oncological patients’ physical exercise programmes, particularly for women undergoing treatment at the Foundation’s Breast Unit. As a doctoral student from the Human Motricity Faculty (FMH) of the University of Lisbon, the 41-year-old exercise physiologist, specialising in oncology, has worked at the Foundation since October.

Cancer patients comprise about 15-20% of all patients admitted into Intensive Care Units (Bos et al. 2015; Shimalbukuro-Vornhagen et al. 2016); Approximately 50% of these admissions are due to surgical procedures, while the other 50% is related to medical causes, with only 3.3% corresponding to specific causes of oncological disease (Puxty et al. 2015).
 

March was Multiple Myeloma Awareness Month. In this short video, Cristina João, Haemato-oncologist of the Haemato-oncology Unit at the Champalimaud Foundation, explains what this pathology is and talks about the activities that the Unit has developed for improving the care of people with Multiple Myeloma. She also points out that, in addition to clinical activity, the Haemato-Oncology Unit does translational research through the Foundation's Lymphoma and Myeloma Research Group, which she leads.

In this video, Oriol Parés, Radiation Oncologist at the Champalimaud Foundation's Radiation Oncology Service, presents the advantages of the Watch and Wait (W&W) protocol in trying to avoid rectal surgery in low rectal cancer patients, sparing them from the decline of defecatory, urinary and sexual functions that can result from radiochemotherapy followed by surgery.

In patients with low rectal cancer, it may be necessary to completely remove the rectum. This implies permanently redirecting the colon towards an incision made in the abdomen, called a stoma. The patient is then fitted for life with a “bag” to collect stools directly through that artificial orifice.

In this video, nurse Tatiana Quaresma, of the stomatherapy team at the Digestive Unit, explains how the team’s intervention, before and after such a type of rectal surgery, is important in dealing with the physical and psychological impact of the procedure. 

Surgery continues to be central in colorectal cancer treatment.

In this short video, surgeon Pedro Vieira describes the state-of-art practice of colorectal surgery at the Champalimaud Foundation, with a particular emphasis on robotic surgery, the gold standard in rectal surgery, and minimally invasive surgery, which Digestive Unit surgeons favour whenever possible.