“Different skills against cancer”

Women are playing an increasingly central role in cancer research, and true equality is just a matter of time. This is not an opinion, but a fact, supported by the enthusiastic welcome given in Trento to Karin De Visser, a leading figure in the field of cancer immunology, best known for her studies on how breast cancer “manipulates” the immune system to spread.

Head of a research group at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Oncode Institute in Amsterdam, as well as a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, De Visser won the Pezcoller EACR “Women in Cancer Research” award. This award, given by the Pezcoller Foundation thanks to a donation from Marina Larcher Fogazzaro, is one of the initiatives that attract leading cancer experts to the city, creating opportunities for the local scientific community to meet and collaborate.
In Trento, De Visser met another key figure in the fight against cancer, Francesca Demichelis. Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Trento, Demichelis heads the Computational and Functional Oncology Laboratory at the Cibio Department, where she has made a significant contribution to understanding the genetics of prostate cancer. The two scientists discussed the present and future of cancer research.