The jury of the 11th “Premio Ciencias de la Salud” awarded by the  Fundación Caja Rural de Granadahas unanimously voted to present the research award to the study entitled “Identificación de los subtipos moleculares con mal pronóstico en el cáncer colorectal a través del estroma tumoral”, headed by Eduard Batlle, ICREA researcher at IRB Barcelona, located at the Parc Científic de Barcelona.

According to the committee of experts, the research opens up a new way of understanding cancer. The study reveals that, in addition to classifying patients with colon cancer using traditional methods based on the degree of malignancy of tumour cells, patient evolution can be reliably predicted by analysing the cells surrounding the tumour. In other words, for the prognosis of the disease, the tissue surrounding the tumour is equally or more important than the tumour itself. This discovery also paves the way for new treatments for metastases, many of which are still incurable.

This project has arisen from an article published in Nature Genetics in February 2015 by IRB Barcelona’s Colorectal Cancer Lab, led by Batlle. The study sets the scene for the development of a test that measures between four and six gene in the tissue around the tumour and that could allow the identification of those patients at risk of relapse after surgical removal of the growth.

The jury gave special mention to the quality of the 18 projects presented for the research prize, thus highlighting the award one of the most valuable recognitions in the field.