Breakthrough discovery in cancer research funded by the EU

Researchers at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, funded by grants from the European Research Council, have taken a big leap forward in cancer research

The Université Libre de Bruxelles research team funded by grants from the European Research Council and led by Professor Cédric Blanpain defined for the first time tumour growth phases during cancer progression and identified the types of tumour cells causing metastases in skin and breast cancer.

Skin cancer is the most frequent cancer worldwide and breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women. Over the last ten years, Professor Blanpain received European Research Council grants worth €4 million directly supporting his work in cancer research and these breakthrough results.

The findings, published by Nature magazine, show that researchers were able to identify at least seven different types of tumour cells and demonstrated that they are not all functionally equivalent and equally metastatic. This discovery will have major implications for the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy of cancer patients.