On 17 October 2024, the SEOM awarded 61 SEOM Grants worth a total of €1,288,000 to promote research and training to improve the survival of cancer patients. Four of these grants were awarded to professionals from the Clínic-IDIBAPS.
The awards ceremony for the SEOM 2024 Grants Projects and Prizes was held in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid as part of the SEOM2024 Congress, which took place in Madrid from 15-18 October.
Best oncology residents in Spain
The two SEOM Somos futuro (We are future) awards that are presented by the Society annually are worth €15,000 each and went to two R5s from the Clínic. They are Juan Carlos Laguna and Marta García de Herreros, who finished their medical oncology residency in May this year and remained at the hospital thanks to receiving two of the end-of-residency prizes awarded by the Clínic.
Training in breast cancer
Dr. Elia Seguí, a medical oncologist who trained at the Campus Clínic from her time as a medical student until the end of her residency, where she received the end-of-residency award, received a two-year SEOM Research Fellowship grant worth €72,000. Thanks to this grant, Dr. Seguí went to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to sub-specialize in breast cancer and finish her PhD.
Studying breast cancer among young women in greater depth
Dr. Maria Reig and Dr. Benjamin Walbaum received one of the €20,000 grants for breast cancer research projects.
The project focuses on studying gene expression profiles in breast cancer in young women, comparing postpartum and nulliparous women, i.e. those who have never given birth. Given that breast cancer in young women is associated with a poorer prognosis, the study aims to investigate how factors such as pregnancy, breastfeeding and time since childbirth influence the tumour biology and the prognosis of these patients. The aim is to identify transcriptional changes and create a predictive algorithm to improve risk classification in young women with breast cancer.