New centre for personalised medicine enables customised cancer therapies

This has the task of providing cancer patients with customised treatment. Various specialist disciplines from basic and clinical research work together under one roof to achieve this. The Centre for Personalised Medicine thus opens up a promising perspective for the care of cancer patients in the region and for the development of effective future cancer therapies.

A black plastic box, the tumour sequencer, works loudly in the molecular pathology laboratory. The comparatively small device contains various chemical reagents in which tumour samples from up to 12 patients can be read in parallel: Millions of DNA molecules are analysed within 24 hours and provide information on possible treatable mutations in the tumours. In addition, blood is examined to see whether there are signs of a hereditary tumour, for example. Basic researchers contribute their knowledge of cellular, genetic and molecular mechanisms. In the future, this data collected in many places will be brought together in the Centre for Personalised Medicine.

Science Minister Sebastian Gemkow said at the opening ceremony: "With their high level of innovation, the two Saxon university cancer centres in Leipzig and Dresden are creating a close link between research and patient care at the highest level. Patients benefit almost directly from the latest findings and technologies developed in the fight against cancer. Last but not least, this also ensures that future doctors are taught under the best conditions and at the highest professional level at the cutting edge of research. I am delighted that with the new Centre for Personalised Medicine in Leipzig, we are further strengthening cancer research and care in Saxony as a whole.

Every tumour and every tumour development has individual characteristics. On the basis of complex diagnostics and interdisciplinary consultation, the Centre for Personalised Medicine Leipzig will research and further develop individual therapy strategies and bring them directly into clinical application. Close collaboration between various specialist disciplines, such as pathology, human genetics, biology and biochemistry, bioinformatics, pharmacology, pharmacy and various areas of clinical oncology, is an essential component. The University Cancer Centre (UCCL) is also the central point of contact for tumour patients at the UKL.

„I would like to congratulate Leipzig University Medicine on the establishment of the Centre for Personalised Medicine. In particular, I would like to thank all those involved in getting this important project for cancer medicine off the ground, above all Dean Prof. Dr Ingo Bechmann and UCCL Director Prof. Dr Florian Lordick. The Central German Cancer Centre with university branches in Leipzig and Jena has already set an important course for cancer research in the region. Science thrives on networking and the exchange of expertise,“ emphasised Prof. Dr Eva Inés Obergfell, Rector of the University of Leipzig. Researchers and doctors will work together to investigate the development of resistance in tumours, identify biomarkers and develop predictions for therapy response in various tumour diseases. The aim is to be able to prevent tumour resistance in the future. Patients who fail standard therapies should be offered personalised therapy concepts with fewer side effects.

Prof. Dr Christoph Josten, Medical Director of Leipzig University Hospital: „Our goal as doctors has always been to treat people optimally on an individual basis. Thanks to personalised medicine, this goal is now becoming tangible in a completely new way, because we can now offer customised therapies thanks to precise information. Driving this forward for Leipzig and establishing it on a broad basis will be the task of the new centre, which will make an enormous contribution to further improving patient care.

In addition, it will offer advisory services and quality-assured therapy recommendations.

The Centre for Personalised Medicine is embedded in the structures of the University Cancer Centre at Leipzig University Hospital under the direction of Prof. Dr Florian Lordick, who holds the Chair of Clinical Oncology at Leipzig University's Faculty of Medicine. New findings are regularly discussed in the „Molecular Tumour Board“. The core structure of the ZPM is established with financial support from the SMWK. The centre will be certified by the German Cancer Society within two years.

Source: https://www.uniklinikum-leipzig.de/presse/Seiten/Pressemitteilung_7860.aspx