AULA ES1 Polo Nobili, Via Volta 4 (Pisa)
Venerdí 16 ore 9.00
DNA damage and repair in relation to colorectal cancer therapy
Alena Opattova
Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
Institute of Biology and Medical Genetics, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common type of cancer in the world and the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in Europe with the highest incidence in Central Europe. CRC is a complex disease that develops as a consequence of environmental and health risk factors with particular involvement of suboptimal DNA repair, resulting in accumulation of DNA damage. DNA repair plays an essential role in elimination of DNA damage, thereby preventing cells from genomic instability and malignant transformation. On the other hand, DNA repair is also involved in patients’ response to therapy. DNA damage repair inhibitors can sensitize cancer cells with the main goal to maximize the cytotoxic effect of therapy. Despite disease free survival improvement, conventional therapy is still accompanied by significant collateral damage of non-malignant tissues. Because new personalized therapeutic schemes are still urgently needed, we have focused our research on DNA repair pathways with the main aim to promote better efficiency of 5FU therapy leading to a better tolerated treatment.