Nosso trabalho

In precision oncology, the choice of the best treatment depends on tests that molecularly characterize the patient and the pathology, optimizing efficacy and minimizing costs and adverse events. The patient has dozens of treatment options far beyond conventional anti-proliferative chemotherapy. Targeted drugs focus on specific genetic mutations in oncogenes. Immunotherapy has already focused on the so-called immune "checkpoints", such as PD-1 and PD-L1. These regulate the intensity of T lymphocyte action, so that a healthy individual generates immune responses without affecting normal tissues. In cancer, these checkpoints are co-opted to inhibit anti-tumor immune responses. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), and the combined use of ICIs results in a 60% response in metastatic melanoma. UFCSPA is the only Federal University specialized in Health, directly connected to the Santa Casa Hospital Complex in Porto Alegre, 9 hospitals that perform one million treatments per year, most of them through the SUS. Our goal is to establish a precision oncology hub here, decentralizing these technologies currently focused on the Southeast, and ensuring broad access through the SUS, in a sustainable environment. To this end, we have chosen 4 axes: 1) to validate a panel developed by our group with PRONON funding for the analysis of “driver” mutations by NGS that guide therapy with targeted drugs or MAbs at an affordable cost for the SUS; 2) to expand and consolidate the development of highly complex molecular tests for diagnosis, focusing on leaner panels focused on the tumor type; 3) to characterize molecularly and immunologically the tumors of SUS patients with the aim of identifying new targets for the development of optimized therapies; and 4) to isolate and produce monoclonal antibodies for immune checkpoints and tumors.