Wilhelm Sander Stiftung

Gastrointestinal tumors account for more than one third of all cancer-related deaths worldwide. So-called MAIT cells could play an important role in the body’s own defense. These immune cells can recognize and destroy tumor cells, but their function is often impaired in tumor tissue. A research team at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, led by Katja Kotsch, has now examined these cells in five types of gastrointestinal cancer. The result: on MAIT cells within the tumor, the activating receptor NKG2D is reduced in all five cancer types. In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), this is also linked to patient survival. The Wilhelm Sander-Stiftung funded the project with €142,000.

Ovarian cancer is often detected at a late stage and is rarely curable. Many patients therefore receive the drug bevacizumab in addition to chemotherapy, as it blocks the tumour’s blood supply – yet it does not help everyone, and it can sometimes cause serious side effects. A research team at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, led by Prof. Dr Barbara Schmalfeldt and Prof. Dr Leticia Oliveira-Ferrer in collaboration with bioinformatician Dr Olga Zolotareva (University of Kiel), has now succeeded in identifying a characteristic pattern of activity in the tumour that indicates who actually benefits from bevacizumab: patients with this pattern lived significantly longer when they received the drug. Surprisingly, the drug showed no discernible benefit in patients without this pattern. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation funded the project with 170,000 euros.

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.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common soft-tissue tumour in children. It is a tumour of mesenchymal origin that closely resembles skeletal muscle cells. Two types are classically distinguished: alveolar and embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. Both tumour types have in common that differentiation into postmitotic skeletal muscle cells is inhibited although they have the general capability for myogenic differentiation. Differentiating proliferating tumour cells into differentiated, non-dividing myotubes or muscle fibres could represent a new supportive approach in the treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma. A group of researchers led by Julia von Maltzahn at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) and the Leibniz Institute on Aging (FLI) have found a way to convert embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma cells into differentiated postmitotic muscle cells. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation supported this project with EUR 185,000.

Small-cell lung cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer. Tissue samples are rare, making realistic mouse models indispensable. Researchers led by Thorsten Stiewe at Philipps University of Marburg have developed a model in which CRISPR gene-editing technology switches off individual genes directly in the lung, thereby generating tumours. A fluorescent signal in the blood makes them detectable: just a few drops are enough to track their growth – month after month, without the burden of anaesthesia. Gene by gene, it becomes clear which natural brakes must fail and where new therapies can be targeted. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation funded the project with €154,280.

Whether a tumour is particularly aggressive often determines the correct treatment – until now, this could usually only be determined by means of an invasive tissue sample. A research team led by Prof. Dr Jan Peeken and Johannes Kiechle at the University Medical Centre of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now developed an AI method designed to answer this question directly using CT and MRI scans. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation funded the project with around 181,000 euros. The results have now been published in the journal *Medical Image Analysis*.

In the second quarter of 2026, the Wilhelm Sander Foundation approved funding for six research projects totalling 1,020,184 euros. These range from the molecular regulation of treatment resistance, through the classification of rare TP53 variants, to new immunotherapies for breast, liver and lung cancer. Funding is being provided for projects that fundamentally elucidate the mechanisms of tumour development and derive therapeutic approaches from them.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers among men worldwide. However, in the case of advanced, metastatic tumours, there is often a lack of precise tools for planning individualised radiotherapy treatments. A research team led by Dr Constantin Mamat from the Institute for Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research at the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has now tested a novel diagnostic approach that combines two imaging techniques and could pave the way for highly personalised radiotherapy. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation funded the study with 166,000 euros. The results were published in the *Journal of Medicinal Chemistry*.