The second edition of Metamersion, the cycle of artistic, scientific, technological and therapeutic immersive events of the Champalimaud Foundation, launches on December 15th with the programme Latent Spaces, taking place at the Champalimaud Warehouse, in the former warehouses of DocaPesca, in Lisbon, in a location that is also in a latent phase, and where the first steps towards the creation of a centre dedicated to Human Neuroecology and Digital Therapeutics are being taken.

A report, published last week (16 November) in The Lancet Oncology by an expert commission, under the title Key messages from European Groundshot – addressing Europe’s cancer research challenges: a Lancet Oncology Commission, analyses the current state of cancer research in Europe, identifies geographical and gender gaps (among others), and issues recommendations to rethink the priorities of European cancer research.

Fátima Cardoso, director of the Breast Unit at the Champalimaud Clinical Center/Champalimaud Foundation, is among the co-authors of the new report.

Cancers can be detected through the presence, in the tumours or bodily fluids, of so-called molecular biomarkers – in other words, of biological molecules (proteins, genes, etc.) found in blood or tissues that are a sign that a person has cancer. One well-known cancer biomarker is the PSA protein, whose rapid rise in the blood may indicate the presence of prostate cancer. 

All cancers are genetic in nature, in the sense that they all arise from genetic mutations inside cells. But the origin of those mutations can vary: they can be due to environmental factors (for example exposure to carcinogenic substances such as tobacco smoke or asbestos particles), but also to spurious DNA replication errors during the cellular division of any cell type in the body. Such random, unpredictable DNA errors account for nearly two-thirds of the mutations responsible for cancer.