Coinciding with World Poetry Day, which is celebrated on 21 March, the Gremi de Llibreters de Catalunya, the Fundació Collserola and the Hospital Clínic Barcelona-IDIBAPS are launching the ‘Girem Full!’ (‘Turn the Page!’) campaign. The aim is to promote reading in order to raise funds for the immunotherapy research that is carried out at the Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS.
The campaign will run from 21 March until 23 April (Diada de Sant Jordi [Saint George’s Day]) 2024 and it calls on everyone to read books and share their reviews. Thanks to the financial support obtained by sponsoring reading, each book review will be converted into minutes of research, increasing the resources obtained through individual donations and socially responsible actions.
The current campaign, which starts at the Frederic Mistral-Tècnic Eulàlia school, is only the first stage of an initiative that aims to become consolidated, year after year, involving more schools and participants from all walks of life. “We are starting at the school because we are reaching out to a very broad and varied target audience. Members of the school community, book lovers, health professionals, businesses, private individuals and just anyone interested in doing their bit to fight cancer”, explains Eric del Arco, president of the Gremi de Llibreters de Catalunya.
How to collaborate with ‘Girem Full!’
The goal of the ‘Girem Full!’ campaign is to reach 1,000 hours of cancer research. For each book read, 10 minutes of research, and for every six books, one hour.
The campaign is being supported by reading sponsors who are collaborating financially. For each book review that arrives, 20 euros are donated, which will then be converted into hours of research. The reviews can be sent in either through the Girem Full! website or be written on the free bookmarks obtained at any bookshop participating in the campaign, or be deposited in the physical mailboxes located in the hall at the Hospital Clínic and the bookshops.
On the other hand, you can also collaborate by making a donation or organizing a socially responsible initiative to raise funds.
Promoting research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer
‘Girem Full!’ is promoting the ARI Project and, with it, research into new immunotherapy treatments against cancer that are being developed at the Campus Clínic, in order to make them accessible to all through the public health system.
Cell immunotherapy is one of the main lines of research carried out by the Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS in order to develop new treatments that are available to treat patients with different types of solid tumours or haematological malignancies. On the other hand, research is also focused on improving the functionality of the CAR T-cell therapies once they reach the tumour.
In addition to ARI-0001, to treat acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and lymphoma, ARI-0002h, for multiple myeloma and ARI-0003, for lymphoma, in the next few months a trial is also due to start with CAR T HER2 to treat breast cancer. The preclinical studies with the CAR T ARI-0007 to treat people diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia have also finished. To date, over 350 patients have benefited from treatment with ARI-0001 or ARI-0002h.
Tumour-Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is another type of cell-based therapy. The Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS has now approved the TIL0001 trial, being one of the pioneering centres in the use of this type of therapy in Spain and Europe for the treatment of breast cancer.
“Through the synergistic collaboration between strategic partners and the multidisciplinary team at the Campus Clínic, we shall ensure that in the future personalized cell therapies will become a central pillar in the treatment of cancer”, says Aleix Prat, director of the Hospital Clínic Institute of Cancer and Blood Diseases.
Look here for all the photos from the presentation:
