The 15th edition of the Octavio Frias de Oliveira Award took place last Thursday, August 8th. The award is organized by the Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo (ICESP) and the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.
The award ceremony covers three categories: Oncology Research, Technological Innovation in Oncology, and Outstanding Personality in Oncology.
In the first category, scientific publications that presented new knowledge about cancers and their treatment methods competed. In the second, patents or original works published in scientific journals that developed new technologies were judged. The third category honors a prominent personality in the field of Oncology.
The winners were selected by a committee of representatives from ICESP, Folha de S. Paulo, USP, The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the National Academy of Medicine (ANM), the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and the Fundação Oncocentro de São Paulo (Fosp).
Oncology Research Category
The winning work was the study Linking tumor immune infiltrate and systemic immune mediators to treatment response and prognosis in advanced cervical cancer, by Patrícia Martins and Katia Morais from the Albert Einstein Teaching and Research Center. The research was published in Scientific Reports, part of the Nature Portfolio.
The study evaluated the immune response of patients diagnosed with cervical cancer, identifying differences between those who responded well to therapy and those who did not, which translated into a biomarker. This biomarker may be used to predict treatment response and prognosis in cervical cancer.
Technological Innovation in Oncology Category
In this category, the awardees were researchers Renata Nacasaki Silvestre and Virgínia Picanço e Castro from the Hemocentro de Ribeirão Preto/USP. The research spanned about six years and was the subject of Silvestre’s doctoral thesis.
The winning work, titled Enhancing NK Cell Immunotherapy: Development of a new NK-CAR.19 vector co-expressing the IL-15/IL-15Ra complex, resulting in IL-2-Independent NK Cells with high antitumor effect in vivo, involves the development of a new therapeutic strategy for hematological malignancies using Natural Killer (NK) immune cells, which naturally attack cancer cells. The effect can be enhanced by activating the IL-15 pathway, as demonstrated by the Hemocentro de Ribeirão Preto group’s strategy. The study presents a proof of concept that will now be fully developed by the team at the Center for Cell Therapy.
Moreover, one advantage of this approach is that NK cells can be produced to treat multiple patients, whereas CAR-T cells must be custom-made for each individual patient. Therefore, NK cell therapy has the potential to reduce treatment costs compared to the much more expensive CAR-T cell therapy.
In a video produced by Folha de S. Paulo, the researchers explain the technology (in Portuguese):
Outstanding Personality in Oncology
Professor Gilberto Schwartsmann was awarded as the Outstanding Personality in Oncology.
Schwartsmann is a Full Professor of Oncology at the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), a Research Professor at the Hospital das Clínicas de Porto Alegre, and a Member of the National Academy of Medicine. Besides his role as a professor, he has contributed to the training of many researchers, serving as a supervisor for master’s and doctoral students.
The professor has also made significant contributions to the development of new anticancer drugs and was the Director of the Central Development of New Anticancer Drugs at the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).