Dr. Ryll has been an extremely active member of the EU Cancer Mision Board, and a pioneer in how good patient-researcher partnerships can boost the quality of research and the impact of its results. 

Yesterday, May 5th, at 3p.m. (Lisbon time), surgeon Pedro Gouveia was in the operating room, at the Breast Unit of the Champalimaud Foundation, in Lisbon, ready to start, as in so many other occasions, performing breast cancer surgery. Meanwhile, another surgeon from the same unit, the young Spaniard Rogelio Andrés-Luna, was attending the operation, and intervening, when needed, by supplying Pedro Gouveia with additional information to help him – and even guide his gestures. Everything seems to be business as usual – but it isn’t.

This first Check Up is about the resurgence of cancer once the disease has been controlled by treatment. Do these terms used to talk about this problem mean the same thing?

Relapse, recurrence, recidivation. These words all mean the same thing in general terms: the disease is back.

However, there are differences between them when it comes to their clinical and medical meaning, which many people are not aware of.

Among neurological disorders, which are now the world’s leading cause of disability, Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the fastest growing. With over 6 million individuals affected worldwide, that number is expected to reach over 12 million by 2040.

Rita Fior uses zebrafish to do basic and translational research in cancer at the Champalimaud Foundation. A few years ago, having to deal with cancer in her family led her to design a test, based on her animal “model” – that would allow doctors to choose, among the available chemotherapeutic options, the best one for a given patient. How? Using the little zebrafish as “avatars”, as personalised “alter-egos” of the patients. Tumour cells from a patient are injected in the fish, generating the “avatars'' that will then be submitted to the treatment options available for that patient.