Scientist Joan Massagué and Francisco González, president of the Fundación BBVA, call for a greater commitment from society and business to drive cancer research

Gaining precise and sophisticated knowledge about the basic mechanisms of cancer and its transition to metastasis remains one of the great challenges for biomedical research. The enormous social and economic impact of the disease obliges us to explore “new forms of commitment” to accelerate cancer research, and its resulting applications in terms of therapy and prevention. This was the inaugural message of the first Barcelona Biomed Forum, celebrated today by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Fundación BBVA (of the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria). The event, “Science, Economy and Society: invest in cancer research” brought together scientific expert Joan Massagué, adjunct director of IRB Barcelona, and Francisco González, president of the Fundación BBVA. The event was presided over by the Minister for Health of the Government of Catalunya, Marina Geli.

Cancer is currently the second cause of death in developed countries; in Spain, the first. According to the World Health Organization, each year 7.6 million people (97,000 in Spain) die from the disease. 90% of cancer deaths occur once the primary tumor has spread or metastasised to other parts of the body. According to the WHO statistics, between 20 and 25 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer each year – 150,000 of them in Spain.

Joan Massagué, internationally recognised cancer expert who has made pioneering contributions to understanding the basic mechanisms of cancer and metastasis, indicated that “recent cancer research has revealed secrets regarding the origin and development of tumours that were previously impenetrable. New medications have been developed to treat certain forms of cancer that until recently were lethal.” In order to translate the potential discovered in research laboratories into concrete benefits for patients, we need “a closer relationship” between basic research labs, clinical experts and the pharmaceutical industry.

Massagué recently published an important study, completed in his lab at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, in which he identified four genes that cause breast cancer to metastasise to the lung. He calls for “social, cultural and political attitudes that facilitate the incorporation of scientific knowledge into daily life and into national interests.”

Support of big business for biomedical research

The president of the Fundación BBVA, Francisco González, highlighted the ever-increasinlgy important role that big business must play in supporting biomedical research. According to González, it is essential that the business world act to support the major causes of our time; one of the most important examples is the fight against cancer. “The BBVA group and its Foundation have taken on this challenge because we believe that contributing to the development of models of excellence in research leads to greater collaboration of the private sector. Ultimately, this will accelerate scientific progress.”

The economic cost of cancer worldwide in 2005 reached 210,000 million dollars – double the costs in 1990. Of this, at least 74,000 million dollars were spent on treatment and hospital stays (direct costs). The remaining 136,000 million were indirect costs associated with the disease (loss of working days) and premature death (loss of productivity). In calculating the indirect costs, working hours of informal care-givers, usually family members, were not included, though some experts insist that they should be. The costs of cancer represents, on average, 8.3% of the economic cost of national health systems. In Spain, this figure is 6.5 – nearly 3,900 million euros.

“To win the fight against cancer, we need the involvement of all areas of society,” says Joan Guinovart, director of IRB Barcelona. “At the scientific level, we need to continually support basic research of excellence, provide access to new technological platforms, and establish collaboration networks and close interactions between the public and private sectors. At the social level, we must achieve a collective commitment to adopt habits that reduce risk factors for the disease. At the individual level, we need to raise awareness about prevention.”

The Barcelona BioMed Forum also included the participation of José Navas, director of the “Biomedical Research Plan” of the Department of Health of the Government of Catalunya, Andreu Mas-Colell, chair of Economics at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Federico Mayor Zaragoza, president of the Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE), and Francisco González-Robatto, presidente of the Spanish Cancer Association (AECC).

Collaboration between the Fundación BBVA and IRB Barcelona - Metlab

The collaboration between the Fundación BBVA and IRB Barcelona centres on advanced training, research and dissemination, with the aim of promoting a better understanding of the molecular and genetic mechanisms of metastasis. An emphasis is also placed on communicating advances in the field to the scientific community and society in general, thereby reinforcing IRB Barcelona’s role as a centre of reference and node for biomedical research of excellence at the international level.

Research activities cover studies on metastasis and the creation of collaboration networks with other institutions and hospitals, at the local, national and international levels. The Fundación BBVA collaborates with IRB Barcelona’s Oncology Programme, which currently comprises three research groups: the Metastasis Laboratory (MetLab), promoted by Joan Massagué and coordinated by Roger Gomis, and the groups led by Eduard Batlle and Elena Sancho.

Training activities include visits of IRB Barcelona researchers to Massagué’s research group at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The Fundación BBVA – IRB Barcelona collaboration is rounded out by an ambitious dissemination programme, which includes Barcelona BioMed Conferences and Barcelona BioMed Forums, the first of which was inaugurated today.

IRB Barcelona and Metlab

The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) is an independent research centre dedicated to the biomedical sciences. IRB Barcelona has collected a unique staff of researchers who are devoted to answering fundamental questions in biomedicine and applying what they learn to real issues in human health. Research is organised into five programmes, which focus on Cell and Developmental Biology, Structural and Computational Biology, Molecular Medicine, Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, and Oncology.

Activities in the Metlab focus on the identification of genes involved in the metastasis of breast and colon cancers, with the aim of understanding the processes by which cells read and change the signals which determine their final behaviour (whether they divide, differentiate, organise, migrate or die). MetLab maintains an international collaboration with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where Joan Massagué chairs the Cancer Biology and Genetics Programme. MetLab will also launch collaborations with local and national institutions and research centres. It will also form alliances with groups within IRB Barcelona and the Barcelona Science Park, which houses cancer research laboratories of pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, and with hospitals in Barcelona.

The Fundación BBVA

Health is a major concern of present day society. New opportunities and challenges in the field of helath are constantly opening up as a consequence of the rapid growth of scientific and technological progress and because of the need to make efficient and organised health care available to all.

The Fundación BBVA supports new strategies for biomedical research that have the capacity to radically change the diagnosis and treatment of disease, thereby contributing to a substantial improvement in quality of life.

The Fundación BBVA’s activities in the field of biomedicine focus on the promotion of research projects in oncology, epidemiology, bioinformatics, molecular medicine and health systems. Of note is their collaboration with the Oncology Programme at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).

In addition, the Fundación BBVA actively supports scientific diffusion and dissemination by organising conference series, specialised training courses and leading international meetings.