•  A Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) research team, led by Dr. Josep Maria Ribera, has participated in a study published in the prestigious journal, The New England Journal of Medicine.

• The study shows that treatment with blinatumomab significantly prolongs the life expectancy of adult patients with certain kinds of leukaemia, in comparison with standard treatment with chemotherapy.

•  This discovery is an important step forward for improving the prognosis for adult ALL patients, a kind of leukaemia with an incidence of 30 new cases per million every year in Spain.

• The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute's (IJC) acute myeloid leukaemia research group, directed by Dr. Ruth M. Risueño, has published a paper in the prestigious journal Leukemia, considered to be the most important journal in the field of hematology.

• The study, the main author of which is Amaia Etxabe, has identified the importance of the serotonin receptor type 1 (HTR1) for therapy in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).

• Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is the most common leukaemia in adults and accounts for 40% of all leukaemias in the western world. It is estimated that every year there are 15 new cases per million in our country. 

The Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), the Catalan Institute for Oncology (ICO) and the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) have signed a collaboration agreement to promote scientific research into leukaemia and other malignant blood diseases.

• The agreement creates a strategic alliance between the three institutions to promote joint scientific research in the field of leukaemia and other malignant blood diseases.

• The alliance will make it possible to bring together the large number of cases and samples that are necessary to produce relevant, high-quality studies. It also integrates the staff at the three institutions in order to carry out global and interdisciplinary research projects. In all, the agreement brings together more than a hundred staff members.

• The agreement establishes the conditions under which research programmes at the Can Ruti campus in Badalona will be carried out, it complements the agreement already signed with Hospital Clínic and the University of Barcelona, and will be followed by another agreement with Hospital de Sant Pau.

"A great effort must therefore continue to be made to identify new biomarkers, as well as more specific therapeutic targets, in order to reduce the level of toxicity of treatments."

On 6 and 7 March, the Paranimf at the University of Barcelona Faculty of Medicine will be hosting some of the world's most renowned experts on tumour clonal heterogeneity. 

• Con motivo del Día Mundial de las Enfermedades Raras (28 de febrero), el Instituto de Investigación contra la Leucemia Josep Carreras presenta una nueva línea de trabajo exclusivamente centrada en las anemias minoritarias.

• El 80% de las anemias minoritarias son diagnosticadas en los primeros años de vida lo que supone que apunten a enfermedades que afectan eminentemente a los niños. Son enfermedades graves y de muy difícil diagnóstico.

"As we understand more and more about the genetic basis and other aspects of the pathogenesis of lymphomas, we will be able to establish more precise and less toxic, more biologically oriented drugs that might have fewer side effects compared to standard chemotherapy."

Josep Carreras raises more than three million euros for the fight against leukaemia in the 22nd TV Gala in Germany.