• These awards, granted within the framework of the UB-Atrys Chair, recognize excellence and innovation in research and promote the dissemination of knowledge in the field of radiation oncology, a medical specialty that is fundamental to progress in the treatment of cancer.
  
• The third edition of the awards recognizes three articles that respectively address solutions to mitigate side effects derived from stereotactic radiosurgery, to detect predictive biomarkers of chemotherapy resistance to optimize treatment effectiveness and the use of artificial intelligence to predict radiation toxicities.
  
• The awards ceremony, held at the XXII SEOR 2024 National Congress, was attended by Dr. Jean Bourhis, CEO of GORTEC, Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University Hospital Center of Lausanne in Switzerland and former President of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, among other specialists in radiation oncology.

Madrid, September 26, 2024. Atrys, a global healthtech company that provides services for prevention, diagnosis and precision medical treatment and pioneer in telemedicine and next-generation radiotherapy, and the University of Barcelona (UB), recognize innovation in the field of Radiation Oncology in the III edition of the ‘Research Awards in Personalized Radiotherapy’. This recognition, linked to the UB Atrys Chair, is awarded since 2021 to the three research articles published in internationally prestigious journals that stand out for their excellence and for their differential and innovative proposal to advance in the different therapies to combat cancer, with the aim of promoting research in the field of radiation oncology, and more specifically, in the field of translational radiotherapy.

The presentation of the awards took place within the framework of the XXII SEOR 2024 National Congress, held between September 25 and 27 in Oviedo. During the inaugural conference, Dr. Ferrán Guedea, head of Radiation Oncology at the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) and director of the UB Atrys Chair, Dr. Jean Bourhis, professor at the University Hospital Center of Lausanne and former president of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, and Dr. Jon Cacicedo Fernández de Bobadilla, head of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, presented the awards. Jon Cacicedo Fernández de Bobadilla, head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Cruces University Hospital, presented the latest innovations in radiation oncology. The awards were then presented in the framework of a special session in which the speakers addressed the great challenge of translational research.

In this third edition, the first prize was awarded to Paola Anna Jablonska for her research on the presence of activated STAT3 in necrosis derived from radiation treatments, which represents a solution to mitigate side effects derived from stereotactic radiosurgery, such as brain necrosis. The second prize was awarded to María José Serrano Fernández for her work on the detection of biomarkers to predict resistance to chemoradiotherapy, such as miRNA-30c, with the aim of optimizing the effectiveness of treatment. Finally, the third prize went to Francisco J. Núñez-Benjumea for his study on the comparison of machine learning approaches to predict radiation toxicities. Dr. Marco Panichi, director of the IOA of Atrys and Sanitas and co-director of the Chair, was in charge of presenting the awards to the winning researchers.

In the words of Dr. Ferrán Guedea, Director of Radiation Oncology at ICO and Director of the UB Atrys Chair, “these awards underline the importance of continuing to promote translational research of excellence in Radiation Oncology. Within the framework of the Chair of the University of Barcelona and Atrys, we will continue to promote the development and dissemination of knowledge, as well as specialized teaching and innovation to advance cancer therapy, with the commitment to make them more effective and personalized”.

The researcher awarded with the first prize, Paola Anna Jablonska, stressed “the essential role played by awards such as this one, which act as a loudspeaker to bring research closer and disseminate it throughout the scientific community. Faced with the challenge of diseases such as cancer, promoting innovative projects, facilitating collaboration between specialists and researchers and encouraging scientific dissemination are essential levers to promote advances in this field”.

The event was closed by Santiago de Torres, CEO of Atrys, who underscored the value of continuing to promote research in the field of radiotherapy to advance cancer treatment: “At Atrys we are specialists in the implementation of single-dose radiotherapy techniques, and we have oncology centers in Spain and Portugal equipped with state-of-the-art machinery to offer a comprehensive, precise, personalized and effective response to cancer patients,” he said. “As a prevention, diagnosis and treatment company, we want to be at the forefront of cancer treatment and it is an honor to be part of projects that recognize and promote innovation in this field, while at the same time boosting research talent so that, together, we can move forward in building a more sustainable and efficient healthcare system.”

Predictive diagnostics and personalization for cancer treatment

The UB Atrys Chair in Personalized Radiotherapy was created with the mission of promoting research in the field of precision radiation oncology, focusing on three main lines of action: the personalization of radiotherapy treatments through studies of radiosensitivity and radiotoxicity, to optimize their effectiveness and minimize side effects; predictive diagnosis prior to high-precision radiotherapy; and the impact of radiotherapy on the immune response against cancer, in order to develop new therapeutic strategies based on immunotherapy.

In this edition, the awarded research articles were:

Paola Anna Jablonska | 1st Prize Chair. Department of Radiation Oncology, Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

Paper: Presence of Activated (Phosphorylated) STAT3 in Radiation Necrosis Following Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Brain Metastases.

The study investigates the role of phosphorylated STAT3 protein (pSTAT3) in brain necrosis caused by stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for the treatment of brain metastases. Radiation necrosis (RN) is a late adverse effect of radiotherapy associated with an exaggerated inflammatory response in brain tissue. STAT3 activation plays a key role in the inflammatory response associated with radiation necrosis. This suggests that STAT3 inhibition could be a promising strategy to mitigate symptomatic necrosis in patients with brain metastases treated with stereotactic radiosurgery.

María José Serrano Fernández | 2nd Chair Award. Division of Integral Oncology, Hospital Virgen de las Nieves, Granada.

Work: Baseline extracellular vesicle miRNA-30c and autophagic CTCs predict chemoradiotherapy resistance and outcomes in patients with lung cancer.

This study investigates the role of some non-invasive liquid biopsy markers such as microRNAs (miRNAs) associated with extracellular vesicles and autophagic circulating tumor cells (CTCs), present in blood samples, as predictive biomarkers of resistance to chemoradiotherapy (cCRT) in patients with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This is the first study to demonstrate that extracellular vesicle-associated miRNA-30c inhibits tumor autogenesis and predicts response to chemoradiotherapy. The results suggest that miRNA-30c and autophagic CTCs can be used as biomarkers to stratify patients and potentially guide complementary treatments such as immunotherapy or autogenesis inhibitors.

Francisco J. Núñez-Benjumea | 3rd Chair Award. Innovation and Data Analysis Unit, Institute of Biomedicine of Seville.

Work: Benchmarking machine learning approaches to predict radiation-induced toxicities in lung cancer patients.

This study evaluates the use of Artificial Intelligence approaches using machine learning (ML) to predict radiation-induced toxicities in lung cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. The aim is to improve clinical decision-making and personalize treatments by predicting common side effects such as esophagitis, cough, dyspnea, and pneumonitis. Data from 875 consecutive lung cancer patients, collected at a Spanish hospital, were analyzed. Three hundred predictive models were developed combining five classifiers. The best models identified new potential predictive variables, such as creatinine and hematocrit levels, which had not previously been related to radiation-induced toxicities.