The name of the project is “MetaBreast - Metaverse for Breast Cancer Surgery”. Developed specifically in the field of breast cancer, it may one day also be applicable in other surgical contexts. For now, its goal is to “develop and test a new medical device to visualize malignant tissue in real time inside the patient’s breast and within the operating room”, states the document presenting the project. One of MetaBreast’s participants is the Champalimaud Foundation’s (CF) Breast Unit, represented by breast cancer surgeon Pedro Gouveia.  

Champalimaud Colorectal Cancer Conference
February 13 & 14, 2023
Lisbon/Portugal

Host Organisers: Amjad Parvaiz, Bill Heald, José Azevedo, Laura Fernandez, Pedro Vieira

The surgical treatment of colorectal cancer continues to advance through development of new surgical techniques and rethinking of previous approaches.

In the case of cancer (as in other diseases) any research study involving human volunteers that is intended to acquire medical knowledge about a potential new drug, vaccine or biological substance against a specific type of cancer – in which these are administered to a group of participants – is called a clinical trial.

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.

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. 

For every argument that construes AI as essential, promising and transforming across nearly all industries, there are voiced concerns about this technology. Many people do not trust AI, claiming that intelligent machines will one day dominate humankind. But while this is a remote possibility, the harm that can be done to people (albeit mostly unintentionally) by deep learning algorithms is very tangible – and has already been known to occur in the real world.

Everything around a malignant tumour and its metastases, from its so-called microenvironment to the patients themselves as individuals, influences cancerous growth, and ultimately the outcome of the disease. This is the take-away message from CRSy2022 – the three-day international scientific symposium that took place at the Champalimaud Foundation, in Lisbon, from 19 to 21 October.

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.

In this short video, Marcio Debiasi, oncologist at the Breast Unit of the Champalimaud Foundation, presents a study dubbed KeyPARTNER, which is being carried out in this Unit with support from industrial funders. The study’s aim is to optimize the use of chemotherapy together with immunotherapy for the treatment of so-called “triple negative” breast cancers, which are considered to be the most aggressive breast tumours.