Oncoheroes Biosciences' drug discovery project (2HIT Medulloblastoma), led by Eva Mendez Camarena, has been awarded the best childhood research project by Fundació Agrupació.
Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant childhood tumor of the brain, accounting for 20% of all central nervous system tumors among children, and responsible for almost 10% of all pediatric cancer deaths. MB Group 3 is mainly affecting infants and children accounting for approximately 25% of all cases and showing the worst outcome, with only 20% of patients surviving 5 years post-diagnosis.
Due to the lack of available specific treatments for children other than the conventional therapies that have devastating secondary effects, Oncoheroes Biosciences aims to develop an innovative therapy for MB Group 3 patients with greater therapeutic effect and lower toxicity by inhibiting two different tumorigenic mechanisms at once and using highly predictive translational models.
Eleven finalists representing groundbreaking companies to advance the prevention, diagnosis, management or care of cancerwere invited to compete. The singularity of the competition was that all the companies were founded by cancer patients, survivors or those with loved ones affected by cancer, like Oncoheroes, which was founded by two dads (Ricardo and Cesare) touched by childhood cancer. An independent panel of judges, that included diverse experts in the cancer, healthcare and business communities, listened to the pitches and selected the winners.
“It was a big surprise because all the finalists did an outstanding job presenting their ambitious projects and I cannot be more honored to have been selected as one of the winners of the night. I am confident that we have a great and ambitious project that will bring new drugs for children and adolescents with cancer.“ Cesare Spadoni stated that night.
The summit was organized by Lyfebulb, a patient empowerment platform that connects patients with industry to support user-driven innovation toward solutions in chronic disease, and Helsinn, a Swiss pharmaceutical group focused on building quality cancer care.
