medicine

Scientists from the Colorectal Cancer Laboratory at the Barcelona Institute of Biomedical Research (IRB) have discovered the essential process that allows colon cancer cells to metastasise. They have concluded that tumour cells need to form alliances with healthy cells in order to be able to colonise other organs. Tumour cells can survive in the transition period during the metastasis process thanks to a protein (interleukin-11), which is produced by healthy cells that are exposed to another protein (TGF-beta) present in the tumour’s microenvironment. This discovery may lead to new treatments and diagnostic proceedings for colon cancer patients. A test to predict relapse cases and target treatments is likely to be ready in 5 years. The study has been published by the prestigious journal Cancer Cell.

For the first time in the world, Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron Hospital removes two tumours through the body’s natural holes without the support of laparoscopy. This technique allows the patient to recover much quicker, since there are no external wounds to cicatrise. They have successfully removed a colon tumour and a stomach one, from two different patients who had recovered without complications.

A medical team from the Catalan capital’s Hospital Clínic and the Sant Joan de Déu Children’s Hospital, in Greater Barcelona, cured a foetus with a lung malformation in a world pioneer intervention. The baby girl is currently 16 months old, has a normal life, and no further surgery is expected. The malformation was diagnosed in the 20th week of pregnancy, surgery took place in the 26th, and Alaitz was born in the 38th week.

Since December, the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona is the only healthcare centre in the world to use a High Definition 3D camera and lens for surgical interventions. The technology, developed by Olympus, reduces both the time and risks in laparoscopic operations and also facilitates the work of surgeons.

For the first time in the world, a foetus having the spina bifida congenital disorder went through a new intra-uterus surgery technique. A medical team from Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron Hospital operated on the foetus in its 24th week by placing a biological fabric on the spinal cord, in order to protect it from amniotic liquid and to ease the gap’s closing. The baby is now five months old and doctors are confident she may walk without any problems.

The vaccine MVA-B against HIV gets a 90% immune response in its first test with humans. In addition, after a year, the vaccine proves to still be effective in 85% of the individuals. The vaccine is still a prototype but it shows a promising perspective. Soon it will be tested as well as a therapeutic vaccine, for people already infected with HIV-AIDS. The vaccine has been developed by the Spanish High Council of Scientific Research (CSIC), in collaboration with Barcelona’s Hospital Clínic and by Madrid’s Hospital Gregorio Marañón.

The Vall d'Hebron Research Institute, the Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia and IDIBAPS-Hospital Clínic of Barcelona are included in the 131 medical institutions that participated in the world study.

The technique is minimally invasive and involves little scarring, a shorter hospital stay and less pain for the donor. So far the Hospital has performed 32 of these operations

An international study led by a Catalan team of researchers finds that the vaccine is not only effective in women between the ages of 9 and 26 , but in women older than 26. Women up to 45 years old could use this preventative vaccine. The study is published this Wednesday in the ‘British Journal of Cancer’.