Another ERC award for prevention researcher Martin Weidschwindter – University of Innsbruck

Human life expectancy has increased significantly over the past 150 years. But with increasing age, the risk of developing serious diseases also increases, so that the proportion of healthy years in a person’s total life has decreased significantly. Of particular concern is the dramatic increase in cancer diagnoses and deaths among those under 50 years of age. Prevention measures must be implemented widely, individually and early in order to increase the number of years of healthy life. That is why the European Research Council (ERC) has honored the researcher and preventive physician in Innsbruck, Martin Weidschwander, for the second time.

In order to further develop his approach to the prevention and prevention of breast cancers with particularly poor chances of cure, Martin Wiedschwender was awarded a “Proof of Concept Grant from ERC”. This builds on the famous “Advance Grant”, the highest award awarded by the European Research Council, which Weidschwinder received in 2017 as the first and only Austrian oncologist. In addition to his work at the University of Innsbruck and Tyrol Hospital, Wiedschwindter is also a professor of prevention at University College London and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. He is Director of the European Program for Cancer Prevention and Screening (YouTube).

“My team and I at the Innsbruck EUTOPS Institute are proud and grateful that we can continue our ambitious work with these additional funds from the European Research Council. “Because: prevention is better than cure,” Widschwinter says of the award.

The genetic mutation requires surgery at an early age

Women with a hereditary mutation in the BRCA genes have a 40 times increased risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. For this reason, and in the absence of other options, many women with this mutation choose to have a radical, risk-reducing procedure at an early age: removing the breasts, ovaries and fallopian tubes. This type of procedure became widely known ten years ago by actress Angelina Jolie.

A type of cancer called triple-negative breast cancer is particularly common in women who carry the BRCA gene. This affects women at an early age and spreads early, so the chance of recovery is weak. Previous non-surgical measures to prevent breast cancer are ineffective for this type of cancer that grows particularly aggressively.

Progesterone inhibitors can prevent breast cancer

“Developing new non-surgical methods to prevent breast and ovarian cancer in women at high risk is extremely important,” emphasizes Wiedschwender. “We have already shown that progesterone plays a critical role in the development of triple-negative breast cancer and perhaps also ovarian cancer, and its inhibitor, mifepristone, is a promising substance for cancer prevention in these women.”

Wissenschaftliche studioen, die klennenen, or Mifepristonächlich gesuchte mittel zur invention dieser hochaggressiven krebsformen ist, sindoch sehr langwierig, da Frauen früh mit der vorbeugenden maßnahme beginnen und über Jahrebach hinweg beautet wer This month, my heart, with a different method he.

“But there is a promising approach here too,” says Wiedschwender. “We have one approach Epigenetic A testing method has been developed that can help determine whether treatment with mifepristone is effective enough or whether surgical procedures are necessary. Thanks to this new technology, we can, so to speak, monitor the success of preventive treatment in real time.

The ERC proof-of-concept grant forms an important foundation for further deepening this prevention research.