Month: October 2026

In the third quarter of 2026, the Wilhelm Sander Foundation approved funding for 16 research projects totalling 2,824,168 euros. These range from the targeted induction of ferroptosis in pancreatic cancer, through new immunotherapies for leukaemias and lymphomas, to gentler radiotherapy techniques. Funding is being provided for projects that fundamentally elucidate the mechanisms underlying cancer development and resistance to treatment, and which use these findings to derive new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Ovarian cancer often responds well to chemotherapy at first, but usually returns in a chemoresistant form. A team led by Dr. Ricardo Coelho at the University Hospital Basel now shows that combining the investigational drug birinapant with standard chemotherapy kills significantly more cancer cells than chemotherapy alone. Surprisingly, this enhanced effect depends on immune cells within the tumor, known as macrophages, which send out a signal that further boosts the effect of the treatment. In the future, the findings could help predict which patients will benefit most from this therapy. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation supported the project with €134,000.