Research that helps: personalised treatment and better patient decision-making
- Post by: fantom
- 5 February 2026
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February 4 marks World Cancer Day. In line with the Paris Charter Against Cancer, its goal is to raise awareness of prevention, early detection, and accessible cancer treatment worldwide. It is also an opportunity to reflect on how cancer affects our lives and why it is important to talk openly about it.
Cancer is one of the most common and serious diseases worldwide. In terms of mortality, it is the second leading cause of death, just behind cardiovascular disease. Education and prevention are fundamental to the fight against cancer. A healthy lifestyle, regular preventive check-ups, and early diagnosis can significantly influence many cases of cancer. World Cancer Day reminds us that awareness leads to early detection and, in turn, more effective treatment.
There are many teams at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University focused on tumour biology and oncology, both in basic and translational research. They focus, for example, on the molecular mechanisms of tumour progression, the regulation of tumour suppressor proteins, the development of targeted therapies, the complex properties of the tumour microenvironment, mechanisms of resistance to therapies, the aggressiveness of tumour cells, and potential therapies targeting tumour migration and invasion.
Thanks to close ties with clinical departments at the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, University Hospital Brno, St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno, and in cooperation with CEITEC MU, the results of basic research are being successfully transferred to further phases of clinical trials and applied oncology. Examples include evaluating the immune response of cancer patients to vaccination, studying brain tumours, and developing advanced immunotherapies for patients with rare tumours.
The direct transfer of research results from laboratories to cancer diagnosis and treatment is also supported by infrastructure, such as the Preclinical Centre’s biobank of clinical samples currently under construction, the faculty’s close links with the national node of the European clinical research infrastructure network CZECRIN, and numerous international collaborations.
Many national and international projects are also dedicated to cancer research, education, and prevention. Listing them all would exceed the scope of this article many times over. We therefore present a selection of the largest or most recent projects focused on the development of personalised cell and gene therapies, innovative diagnostics and treatment of tumours, increasing health literacy about breast cancer, studying the biological mechanisms and biomarkers of rare lymphomas, and improving the early detection of prostate cancer.
Centre of Excellence CREATIC: In collaboration with partners from Germany and Denmark, this centre was established at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University to provide modern, highly personalised treatment for patients with rare diseases. Thanks to support from the Horizon Europe program, cutting-edge research, development, and production of innovative cell and gene therapies are directly linked to clinical practice here. Modern laboratories conduct research and development of personalised medicinal products tailored to specific patients or small patient groups. Some of these are already helping children with rare types of tumours or people with butterfly wing disease. The project also opens an important discussion on how to make these innovative therapies available to the widest possible group of people in need. “We develop so-called ‘living drugs’ – medicines prepared by manipulating the cells of a specific patient. Therefore, the patient must be available not only during the preparation but also during the administration of the medicine, whose shelf life is measured in days,” says Regina Demlová, director of the centre.
National Institue for Cancer Research: Thanks to support from the National Recovery Plan, it connects 11 excellent research centres dedicated to oncological research in three hubs in Prague, Brno, and Olomouc. This has created a nationwide network connecting the research infrastructure and human potential of individual centres to strategically develop Czech oncology research, support innovative approaches to diagnosis and treatment, and communicate research results to the general public.
CHOICE: A European project from the EU4Health program, bringing together experts from Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Greece, focuses on increasing health literacy in breast cancer and on facilitating informed decision-making by patients, especially those with hereditary BRCA gene mutations. “The incidence of breast cancer is increasing. However, thanks to screening programs, less advanced forms of breast cancer are being diagnosed. This means that oncological care, including surgical procedures, is less burdensome,” says project leader Libor Streit, head of the Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery from University Hospital Brno. The aim of the project is to better understand the factors influencing decisions about preventive mastectomy, raise awareness of breast reconstruction options, and improve communication between patients and healthcare professionals through educational materials, a web portal with a medical dictionary, and training for doctors and surgeons.
FANTOM: The project, with a full name Future of ALCL: Novel Therapies, Origins, Bio-Markers and Mechanism of Resistance, is a prestigious international doctoral network of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Doctoral Networks program. It brings together leading European academic institutions and industrial partners to fundamentally advance research and treatment of anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). This rare and aggressive cancer primarily affects children and young adults. Led by Professor Suzanne Dawn Turner from the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University and the University of Cambridge, it focuses on understanding the biological mechanisms of ALCL development, developing new biomarkers, and studying resistance to targeted therapy. At the same time, it aims to educate a new generation of top scientists through international and interdisciplinary cooperation.
ProstaPilot: The Faculty of Medicine is collaborating with colleagues from the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute and CEITEC MU on a project supported by the Czech Health Research Agency. Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men. Its incidence and mortality rates are comparable to those of breast cancer in women. Early detection significantly increases the chances of successful treatment. It is therefore crucial to motivate men to undergo regular preventive examinations. Among other things, this project seeks the most effective way to detect prostate cancer in men aged 50–69 at an early stage. Also, it includes an analysis of what really motivates men to undergo preventive examinations.