SEOM Supports Three Research Projects to Improve Responses to Cancer Treatments and Honors a Young Medical Oncologist

Predicting which patients will respond best to treatment and understanding why some tumors become resistant are two challenges addressed by three projects at the Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau) that have received €70,000 through the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) 2026 grant program. Led by Dr. David Páez López-Bravo, Dr. Cristina Arqueros Núñez, and Dr. Margarita Majem Tarruella, researchers in the Clinical Oncology group at IR Sant Pau and members of the Medical Oncology Department at Hospital Sant Pau, the projects focus on neuroendocrine tumors, metastatic breast cancer, and lung cancer.

The program also honored Dr. Alejandra Romano Cardozo with one of its two «Somos futuro» awards, which recognize outstanding educational and professional achievements among young medical oncology residents in Spain.

Predicting Treatment Response in Neuroendocrine Tumors

Dr. David Páez López-Bravo received the SEOM grant for medical oncology research projects related to nuclear medicine, funded by Novartis with an award of €20,000. Dr. Judit Sanz Beltran, a member of the project's research team, accepted the grant on behalf of Dr. Páez.

The project aims to identify indicators that help predict which patients with neuroendocrine tumors are most likely to benefit from [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-DOTA-TATE therapy and which are at greater risk of adverse effects.

To do so, the team will combine information from PET/CT scans with patients' genetic data and the molecular characteristics of their tumors. This integration, known as radiogenomics, will enable the development of predictive models that account for different aspects of the disease and each individual patient.

The study plans to enroll patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and will run for two years, involving specialists in Medical Oncology, Nuclear Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology, Pathology, Genetics, and Epidemiology. The goal is to develop tools that, once validated, could help refine the selection of candidates for this treatment.

Understanding Resistance to Hormone Therapy in Breast Cancer

Why do some patients with metastatic breast cancer fail to benefit from hormone therapy from the outset? This is the question addressed by ESTRO-MAP, the project led by Dr. Cristina Arqueros Núñez, which received the SEOM grant for metastatic breast cancer research by emerging academic clinical groups. Funded by Gilead, the grant provides €30,000.

The research focuses on estrogen receptor-positive tumors and will investigate whether treatment resistance is associated with a particular immune system profile that can be detected in the blood. T lymphocytes, cells involved in the immune response against tumors, and other markers will be analyzed before treatment begins and after the first month.

The analysis will also include mutations in the ESR1 gene, which are associated with resistance to hormone therapy. Through this pilot study, the team aims to identify signals that could help detect patients at greater risk of resistance early and guide future therapeutic strategies. Any potential biomarkers will require subsequent validation in other cohorts.

Exploring How to Restore Sensitivity to Immunotherapy in Lung Cancer

Dr. Margarita Majem received one of the SEOM grants for lung cancer research projects, funded by Takeda with an award of €20,000. The study will investigate the relationship between mechanical stimuli in the tumor environment, epigenetic regulation, and sensitivity to immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer. It will be conducted in collaboration with the Cancer Epigenetics group at IR Sant Pau.

Epigenetics regulates gene activity without changing the DNA sequence. The project will investigate how these mechanisms may help tumors evade the immune response and whether targeting them with drugs could help reverse this resistance.

The research will combine the analysis of tumor samples from patients treated with immunotherapy with experiments in cellular models  and will search for epigenetic patterns associated with treatment response and assess whether modulating them could provide a basis for new therapeutic combinations.