As the vice-president of the Provincial Council underlined, research and knowledge have an irreplaceable role in offering answers to man’s fundamental needs: many people and families look with hope at every step forward that is made in these areas. Thanking the Pezcoller Foundation for its work, with which Trentino is linked to international excellence and which aligns with the provincial government’s commitment to research, consistent with the objectives it has set itself, deciding to invest in knowledge and innovation, the vice president also recalled that Trentino today has centers of excellence, which have earned a solid reputation in the world: support for research and knowledge occupies a prominent place in the agenda of the Autonomous Province of Trento. It will be like this in the future too.
The provincial councilor for health and social policies highlighted that this recognition not only pays homage to Professor de Lange’s exceptional career, but is also an opportunity to involve citizens in awareness of the challenges linked to cancer research and the hopes offered from contemporary medical research. Every year, in Trentino alone, 550 new cases of cancer are expected for every 100 thousand inhabitants, which is why the autonomous Province of Trento has demonstrated a long-lasting commitment to promoting a high-quality research and innovation system, as demonstrated by the activation of the course degree in Medicine and Surgery and other training opportunities in the healthcare professions sector. The councilor thanked the Pezcoller Foundation and its president Enzo Galligioni for their work and recalled that, alongside the provincial company for health services and the University of Trento, the Foundation has recently financed a scholarship which aims to optimize the clinical path of patients with advanced prostate cancer undergoing new generation hormone therapy.
“This award has achieved the highest level of international recognition and serves as an inspiration to cancer researchers around the world,” said American Association for Cancer Research President Philip Greenberg. “Titia de Lange won the award for having discovered the function of a protein that protects the ends of telomeres, the protective elements located at the ends of chromosomes, which are the guardians of the integrity of the genome. She is a wonderful colleague who has trained so many researchers in a constant and committed way,” she said.
“Much of this work – said Titia de Lange in her speech – was carried out by Italian students and postdocs. I am grateful to have had the privilege of working with these brilliant Italians who contributed decisively to understanding the role of telomeres in cancer. With age – explained the scientist – telomeres progressively shorten each time a cell divides. Although this may seem negative, this shortening is actually a defense mechanism against cancer, preventing cells from having DNA damaged to divide excessively. When telomeres become too short, the cell recognizes damage and self-destructs, blocking the growth of cancer at a very early stage, such as breast cancer.” De Lange criticized the cosmetics industry, which offers products such as creams and serums that claim to lengthen telomeres to slow aging. “In reality this is not proven, and it is not even desirable precisely because of their role in cancer prevention. I would rather have wrinkles than cancer,” concluded the scientist.
Pezcoller Foundation and AACR, a very close bond
The CEO of the American Association for Cancer Research, to which the award has been linked for 27 years, Margaret Foti, thanked the Pezcoller Foundation for the contribution it continues to make to cancer research and the many initiatives organized. “The AACR is the first organization in the world founded with the aim of preventing and treating all tumors; today, over 58,000 scientists and doctors from 141 countries are our members. This award represents the most prestigious of all the scientific awards of the AACR,” he said.
The president of the Pezcoller Foundation Enzo Galligioni retraced the history of the Award, from its origins in 1988, to the collaboration with the Aacr in 1997, to the four winners who subsequently obtained the Nobel Prize for medicine. “The number of patients who survive after cancer is continuously increasing – reported Galligioni – 10 years after diagnosis in 2006, 2.5 million people survived in Italy, in 2020 3.6 million. Mortality is decreasing at the rate by 2% per year. In the United States, cancer mortality has decreased by 33% since its peak in 1991.” Galligioni recalled the commitment of the Pezcoller Foundation to promote prizes, scholarships, conferences – organized on its own or thanks to donations – and the numerous collaborations with research bodies, universities of Trento, institutions, economic bodies that allow the growth of the importance and prestige of the Foundation on the territory and in the international scientific community.
Who is Titia de Lange
Born in 1955 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, she began her research journey with a doctorate in biochemistry (1981-85) at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. Later, she was part of Harold Varmus’s research group (Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1989) at the University of California San Francisco. Since 1997 she has been head of the Laboratory of Cell Biology and Genetics at Rockefeller University in New York. Since 2011 she has been director of the Anderson Center for Cancer Research at Rockefeller University in New York. Dr. de Lange has been a member of the AACR since 2010 and was elected a Fellow of the AACR Academy in 2014. She also received the AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Lectureship in 2004 and the AACR-GHA Clowes Award for Outstanding Basic Cancer Research in 2010. Winner of a large number of international scientific awards, she is the author of around 200 scientific articles in the most prestigious journals (the latest in March 2024 in Nature) with over 42,000 citations.
Images courtesy of the Pezcoller Foundation
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