Press

Gastro-oesophageal adenocarcinoma is an aggressive form of oesophageal cancer that is on the rise, particularly in Western countries. Risk factors include chronic reflux, obesity and a high-fat diet. Researchers led by Prof. Michael Quante (University Medical Centre Freiburg) have discovered that the FXR protein plays a key protective role: It can mitigate the damaging effects of bile acids on the oesophageal tissue. When FXR is specifically activated, the progression of the cancer is slowed down. The findings open up new avenues for the early detection and treatment of this type of cancer. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation supported the project with just under €260,000.

The Wilhelm Sander Foundation is once again providing a major boost to cancer research in the first quarter of 2025: with approximately 5 million euros, it is supporting 24 promising research projects across various fields of oncology. The aim is to gain new insights into the development of cancer and to develop innovative therapeutic approaches.

Researchers at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf have discovered a key mechanism that explains why hormones can have both a protective and a promoting effect in bowel cancer. The researchers used a novel model involving fruit flies. The findings could lead to better treatments for the 60,000 new cases of bowel cancer diagnosed in Germany each year. The study was funded by the Wilhelm Sander Foundation with 100,000 euros over two years and was recently published in the prestigious journal *Nature Communications*.

A recent study by scientists led by Dr Philipp Rathert from the University of Stuttgart opens up new prospects for the development of targeted cancer therapies. The researchers identified NEK6 as a previously unknown regulator of the LSD1 protein, which plays a key role in the development of various types of cancer. The research findings have now been published in the renowned journal *Communications Biology*. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation funded the project with 104,000 euros.

An international team of scientists led by Dr Dominic Bernkopf from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) has unravelled a mechanism that enables active substances originally developed to treat high blood pressure to be used specifically to combat bowel cancer. In preclinical studies, this innovative approach significantly inhibited the growth of bowel cancer. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation funded the project with 247,000 euros.

Researchers led by Tatyana Grinenko and Martin Bornhäuser from TU Dresden have developed a new method to visualise the 3D architecture of human bone marrow. They investigated changes in the bone marrow caused by acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a fatal form of blood cancer, and discovered damage to the sympathetic nerve fibres in AML patients, which is exacerbated by chemotherapy. As the sympathetic nervous system controls blood formation, damage to it can impair the production of blood cells. A nerve-protective treatment could open up a new avenue of therapy. The project received €125,000 in funding from the Wilhelm Sander Foundation.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common liver condition worldwide. If left untreated, it can lead to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. Researchers led by Ralf Weiskirchen and Anastasia Asimakopoulos from the Institute of Molecular Pathobiochemistry, Experimental Gene Therapy and Clinical Chemistry at RWTH Aachen University Hospital have investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms and discovered a protein that drives the development of fatty liver and hepatocellular carcinoma. These findings may lead to new therapeutic strategies for treating fatty liver disease and its associated complications. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation has funded the project with €140,000.

Non-melanoma skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer worldwide. Sabine Werner and her team at ETH Zurich have discovered a new tumour-suppressing protein called NRF3 in the skin. In the cancer cells of patients with non-melanoma skin cancer, they found significantly reduced levels of this protein, which increased the malignancy of the cells and promoted the invasive growth of the tumours. Furthermore, they demonstrated that NRF3 exerts its tumour-suppressing effect by interacting with a protein called HSPA5. Inhibiting HSPA5 is therefore a promising option for the treatment of non-melanoma skin cancer. The Wilhelm Sander Foundation has funded the project with €418,000.

As part of a research project funded with €151,000 by the Wilhelm Sander Foundation at the José Carreras Centre of the Department of Internal Medicine I at Saarland University Hospital (UKS), have succeeded in identifying a possible further infectious trigger for Hodgkin’s lymphoma: the bacterium Rothia mucilaginosa. Furthermore, in the case of mantle cell lymphoma, it has been shown that reactivity of lymphoma B-cell receptors against a specific endogenous protein (LRPAP1) is associated with a better prognosis. These findings could also be used in the future to develop new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of lymph node cancer.