The Masi family has donated a significant sum of money to support research projects on Pleural Mesothelioma Maligno currently underway, courtesy of the translational research laboratory of the IRCCS of Reggio Emilia.
With this gesture the family wanted to remember Ercole, who passed away at the age of 66. Ercole Masi had worked for thirty years as a worker at the Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR) in Bologna and, like hundreds of colleagues, he fell ill and died of mesothelioma due to exposure to asbestos.
“Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a very aggressive tumor for which therapies are still limited also due to the lack of knowledge of the mechanisms by which it develops and progresses. This is why it is important to invest in research, fill gaps and identify new treatment opportunities” explains the doctor Federica Torricellia researcher in the laboratory, who has been studying this tumor for years.
“The donation from the Masi family will serve to support a project for the study of the immune system in the development of pleural mesothelioma, with the aim of improving the effectiveness of immunotherapy drugs,” explains the doctor Alessia Ciarrocchi head of the research laboratory.
“In addition to a very important financial support for our research activity, the gesture represents for us a recognition of the activity carried out and the incentive to be increasingly concentrated and effective in the study of this tumor”.
“The family’s choice fills us with pride – he says Antonino Neriscientific director of the IRCCS – The study of mesothelioma is a field of research and treatment of primary importance as for our territory it is a community disease, the province of Reggio Emilia having been the site of production of asbestos cement until 1980s, and we have become one of the regional reference centers for this neoplasm”.
The thanks to the Masi family took place in the research laboratory in the presence of Antonino Neri and doctors Federica Torricelli and Alessia Ciarrocchi.
