Cancer susceptibility of individuals of different sex is significantly different in many cancer types and across ethnic backgrounds. The role of hormonal and genetic differences in in cancer susceptibility and response to treatment is still poorly understood. To meet this challenge, there is an urgent need to foster interdisciplinary cross-communication efforts and train the next generation of researchers in basic and translational cancer prevention.
This Innovative Training Network (2019-2023) aimed to establish an interdisciplinary PhD program in cancer prevention focused on two key determinants of cancer risk:
- sex hormone signaling and
- chronic inflammation
Researchers from the network have worked effortlessly the last few years to achieve these goals. They uncovered how exogenous factors and genetic influences affect cancer susceptibility, assessed novel chemoprevention approaches by using chemically-developed hormone and inflammation inhibitors, and conducted mechanistic studies to exploit innovative preclinical models developed by the participating labs.
We celebrated the completion of the network with a two-day symposium entitled “Perspectives in cancer prevention: A look into the future”. The meeting brought together and fostered communication between young researchers and world experts from various disciplines, such as epidemiology, genetics and epigenetics, cellular and molecular biology, and pharmacology.
