Healthcare industry

Dossier - 10/03/2014

Cancer therapy and cancer diagnostics

Thanks to improved diagnostics and therapy, today’s cancer patients can live considerably longer than patients several years ago. Nevertheless, some cancers, especially the strongly metastatic ones, are difficult to treat. Therapies targeting immune cells or cancer stem cells could potentially improve the current situation. The early detection and classification of tumours is crucial for the successful treatment of the disease, and molecular…

Vision Zero in oncology - 02/09/2019

Call for a comprehensive master plan for preventing and treating cancer

While a cancer-free world may seem unrealistic given the increasing numbers of cancer cases, we need to reach a social consensus that cancer deaths are unacceptable and that everything possible must be done to prevent them. Leading cancer researchers around the world are calling for more investment in prevention research and cancer screening to move towards the vision of a near cancer-free world.

Press release - 21/02/2018

German Cancer Award for Michael Baumann

Michael Baumann, Chairman and Scientific Director of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, receives the 2017 German Cancer Award in the category "Translational Research". The science award, which is sponsored by the German Cancer Society and the German Cancer Foundation, is one of the most prestigious distinctions in cancer medicine in Germany.

Press release - 27/10/2010

Cancer Research and Cancer Medicine at Top Level

German Research Minister Schavan and Baden-Wuerttembergs Prime Minister Mappus have inaugurated DKFZs renovated main building and visited NCTs new building.

Press release - 12/10/2011

Autoimmune Diseases Affect Cancer Risk

In a recently published study, scientists of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have calculated the interrelations between autoimmune diseases and cancer of the digestive tract. They discovered that many autoimmune diseases increase the cancer risk, while others, such as rheumatism, are associated with a significantly lower bowel cancer risk. These differing impacts on cancer risk may be attributable to the…

immatics biotechnologies GmbH announced on June 2nd, 2010 that it has signed a Clinical Trial Agreement with the Center for Cancer Research (CCR), National Cancer Institute (NCI), USA. The Agreement covers the clinical development of immatics’ therapeutic cancer vaccine IMA950 which is to be evaluated in the field of brain cancer, specifically glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer.

Article - 09/03/2015

Treating cancer by activating the immune system

Vaccines that prevent infection with cancer-causing viruses are already available. Moreover, the development of therapeutic vaccines for the treatment of a number of other cancers is well under way. These vaccines not only prevent the development of cancer, but also treat early stages of cancer. Antigen-armed antibodies have long been used in vaccines against infectious diseases, and can now also be used for treating cancer.

Press release - 04/02/2010

World Cancer Day: encouraging the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer

World Cancer Day on the 4th of February is designed to raise awareness that cancer remains one of the major, often fatal human diseases. Every year, more than twelve million people worldwide develop cancer. The Helmholtz Association carries out research into the development of cancer and the underlying risk factors, and comes up with effective strategies for the prevention of cancer and for better diagnostics and targeted therapies.

Dossier - 05/11/2012

Cancer – basic research, successes and trends

Science is approaching cancer treatment by using new systems biology approaches and setting up large-scale multidisciplinary projects such as the International Cancer Genome Consortium. Progress in genome, epigenome and gene expression analyses of cancer cells, new insights into the regulation and interaction of cells gained in cooperation with stem cell research and virus research contributes to gaining a causal understanding of cancer. This…

Harald zur Hausen the long-time chairman and scientific director of the German Cancer Research Centre DKFZ a member of the Helmholtz Society discovered that human papillomaviruses HPV lead to cervical cancer. His discovery led to the development of a vaccine for cervical cancer which is the third most frequent type of cancer in women.

Article - 25/03/2013

Epigenetics for personalised cancer care for women

Every year in the EU, 45,300 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 330,000 with breast cancer. Ovarian cancer has a mortality rate of around 64% and breast cancer around 27%*. The EU-funded research project EpiFemCare aims at improving cancer detection and subsequent patient care. The research project aims to develop blood tests based on epigenetic DNA modifications, i.e. the methylation of the base cytosine, for the identification of…

Press release - 26/05/2014

50 years of research for life without cancer

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg turns 50 this year. Conducting research on the basic biological mechanisms of cancer, the DKFZ has been instrumental in our current understanding of the development and growth of cancer and has advanced the development of enhanced methods for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Germany will contribute another project to the International Cancer Genome Consortium ICGC. Coordinated by the German Cancer Research Center and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf physicians and molecular biologists will now start to investigate the genetic causes of early prostate cancer.

Press release - 09/03/2011

DKFZ and IBM have signed a collaboration agreement on cancer genome analysis

The International Cancer Genome Project analyzes the complete genomes of thousands of cancer patients. This generates enormous amounts of data. To find those gene segments which are pivotal for cancer development and treatment, intelligent IT systems are needed. The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) in Heidelberg and IBM have signed a strategic partnering agreement at CeBIT 2011. The aim of the agreement is to…

Article - 11/12/2017

KDM4 – an efficient target for the therapy of triple-negative breast cancer

While breast cancer survival has clearly improved in recent years, women with triple-negative breast cancer have benefitted very little from progress in cancer medicine. Targeted therapies aimed at inhibiting epigenetic regulators might offer a potential new option for the treatment of breast cancer. Prof. Dr. Roland Schüle and Dr. Jochen Maurer have discovered an epigenetic enzyme called KDM4 and come up with a new cell model that significantly…

Article - 26/01/2017

Clinical cancer registration to improve patient treatment and care

Germany records around 500,000 new cases of cancer every year. The number is steadily growing, mainly due to an ageing population that leads to an increased risk of cancer. The German government is planning to establish clinical cancer registries in all German states so that all cancer patients receive the best possible treatment. In Baden-Württemberg, all new cancer cases are already recorded. However, the data are still not as comprehensive as…

Article - 15/03/2010

The first active immunisations against cancer

The first anti-cancer vaccines were developed to prevent women from becoming infected with papillomaviruses and to protect them against cervical cancer. The development of vaccines can be traced back to the work of Nobel Laureate Harald zur Hausen and his colleagues at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. But more development is required in the field of anti-cancer vaccines and this is why researchers worldwide are working on vaccines…

Press release - 14/01/2010

First Population-wide Evidence: Colonoscopy Protects From Cancer

Persons who have had a colonoscopy in the past ten years are much less likely to be diagnosed with advanced precancerous stages of bowel cancer. Particularly on the left side of the colon, the risk for cancer and precancerous stages is dramatically reduced, as scientists of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have found out. Their results underline the great potential of colonoscopy for preventing bowel…

Press release - 20/06/2011

CureVac presents new data for prostate and lung cancer vaccines

CureVac GmbH presented promising new data for prostate cancer vaccine CV9103 and lung cancer vaccine CV9201 at the ASCO Conference in Chicago. Final trial results confirm safety and excellent antigen-specific immunogenicity of prostate cancer vaccine CV9103. And initial promising data from phase I/IIa trial of lung cancer vaccine CV9201 further supports the potential of CureVac’s RNActive® vaccination technology in cancer immunotherapy and…

Article - 04/02/2013

DKFZ-HIPO – the Heidelberg Center for Personalised Oncology

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the National Center for Tumour Diseases (NCT) have jointly initiated the Heidelberg Center for Personalised Oncology (HIPO) which provides cancer patients with high-throughput genetic and molecular analyses. In anticipation of the upcoming World Cancer Day on 4th February 2013, the potential of high-throughput genetic and molecular analyses in improving cancer therapy was presented at a workshop held…

Cancer cells are dangerous foodies. They metabolise far greater amounts of sugar than healthy cells. Nuclear medicine experts make use of cancer cells craving for sugar since the advent of modern positron emission tomography PET. This has led to an improvement in the quality of cancer treatment.

Article - 18/05/2015

Parvoviruses can destroy brain tumours

Parvoviruses such as H-1PV have been shown to selectively attack and destroy human cancer cells. However, they are unable to replicate in healthy human cells. A preliminary clinical trial is currently being carried out to assess the suitability of parvoviruses for treating malignant brain cancer. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now discovered the cause of the selective effect of H-1PV. The finding helps identify…

Article - 13/09/2010

Sven Perner: a pathologist with the courage to carry out interdisciplinary research

Dr Sven Perner from Tuebingen was recently awarded the newly created Württemberg Cancer Prize for his work that has made decisive contributions to the understanding of prostate cancer development. In addition the identification of a tumour-specific gene fusion might also be of great importance for other types of cancer.

“Molecular glue degraders” are a new class of cancer drugs, which “glue” cancer growth-promoting proteins directly to the molecular machinery of a cell’s disposal system, leading to the subsequent degradation of the cancer-driving proteins and anti-tumor activity. Scientists from Heidelberg and USA have now deciphered another mechanism whereby a small molecule can degrade a cancer protein.

Article - 04/07/2013

Experimental evidence of stem cells for metastasis

For the first time, scientists from Heidelberg have characterised cancer cells that initiate metastasis in the blood of breast cancer patients using an in-vivo xenograft mouse model. These cells have the properties of cancer stem cells and are characterised by three surface molecules that can be used as biomarkers for disease progression.