The “Viladecans Against Cancer” Association delivers the funds raised during the second edition of its traditional Paella In the context of a popular paella that brought together more than eight hundred people in Viladecans’

Cúbic yesterday, the “Viladecans Against Cancer” Association delivered a check of 11,850 euros to IDIBELL in order to promote the research on new therapies against sarcoma led by Dr. Òscar Martínez-Tirado. The party, which was attended by the mayor of Viladecans, Carles Ruiz, several councilors of the city council, and the board of the Association, chaired by Maria Lluïsa Capdevila, had a number of playful and supportive activities, including an intervention by Dr. Martínez-Tirado. The researcher presented the research project that will receive the funds raised throughout a whole year by the “Viladecans Against Cancer” Association, which has organized activities of all kinds, such as popular walks, charity shows, dance sessions and social awareness talks about this disease.

During his speech, Martinez-Tirado explained that sarcomas are very aggressive solid tumors of the bones and connective tissues, which mainly affect children. The current treatments against this disease are ineffective and very toxic, and therefore, the search for new and better treatments that can cure patients without causing a morbidity that would lead to a very precarious life, is infinitely necessary. With this intention in mind, and in collaboration with experts in nanomedicine, the IDIBELL sarcomas research group works to develop highly specific molecules for the treatment of these tumors, explains the principal investigator of the project. Currently, the team intends to evaluate the efficacy and safety of specific multifunctional products for Ewing sarcoma cells and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. These products consist of an RNA aptamer, specific for a membrane receptor common in these sarcomas, and an interfering RNA directed against the fusion protein characteristic of the disease. This approach is likely to open new avenues for developing more effective and safe personalized treatments for these patients.

The collaboration agreement between IDIBELL and the “Viladecans Against Cancer” Association goes back to the beginning of 2016. In response to the organization’s desire to dedicate, year after year, its donations to a concrete research project against cancer, IDIBELL opened, last May, an internal call for projects, which received a total of nine applications. Of these, three were presented to the Association during a visit to the laboratories during which a representation of the association was able to talk to the researchers. The project chosen by the Association was the one presented by Dr. Martínez-Tirado, which will receive the donations of all the organized actions.