The IdiPAZ Translational Oncology group, headed by Dr. Jaime Feliu, aims to conduct applied research, so that basic research can be translated quickly to the clinic. The group’s studies are aimed at deepening knowledge of the molecular basis of cancer, identifying biomarkers that help to improve the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of neoplastic patients, studying the mechanisms of resistance and working on the development of new therapeutic strategies, in order to develop precision medicine that contributes to increasing the survival of cancer patients and improving their quality of life.

The main lines of work propose a series of fundamental objectives, which can be summarized as early diagnosis, molecular classification for therapeutic purposes and the development of personalized therapies. Most of the projects set as their main objective the identification of factors predicting sensitivity or resistance to antitumor agents and the search for prognostic factors related to tumor progression.

In the field of pancreatic cancer, there are several lines of work among which we can highlight:

• The dynamic study of chromatin structure throughout disease.
• Optimization of adjuvant treatment based on the molecular subtype of the tumor as determined by immunohistochemical biomarkers.
• The evolutionary study of tumor-stromal cell interactions in pancreatic adenocarcinoma during tumor development.
• The study of inflammatory cytokines and adipokines in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and their relationship to molecular subtype, symptoms and prognosis.
• The evaluation of noninvasive markers of thermogenesis as predictors of the development of cachexia in oncology patients.