Radiotherapy, or radiation therapy, is one of the pillars of cancer treatment. Radiotherapy preferentially uses X-rays to eliminate the solid manifestations of malignant tumours. 

It is estimated that 60% of cancer patients are treated with radiotherapy at a given phase of their disease, either as part of radical therapeutics (ablative) protocols or of symptomatic and palliative protocols.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer worldwide conferring high morbidity, mortality and costs. In Portugal, the scenario is no different. According to the World Health Organisation (Globocan), in 2020, 5415 new cases of Lung Cancer were diagnosed in our country, being the 4th most frequently diagnosed tumour in both genders (the 2nd if breast and prostate neoplasms are excluded), with greater relevance in males. 

A Call for four fellowships for Master's Students is open at Fundação D. Anna de Sommer Champalimaud e Dr. Carlos Montez Champalimaud (Champalimaud Foundation) in the context of the project entitled “NextGenAI: Center for Responsible AI”, with reference “PRR” - from the call Nº “crAI 64”, funded by the “Agendas Mobilizadoras para a Inovação Empresarial, Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência, Next Generation EU, IAPMEI”. We are a group of neuroscientists and machine learning experts at the Champalimaud Foundation with scientific partners covering a broad range of domain expertises.

The work, recently published in prestigious scientific journal PNAS, also shows that this molecule, which is transported by extracellular vesicles produced by tumor cells, directs these vesicles to the liver and lung, precisely the organs where it is common for stomach cancer metastases to appear. With these discoveries, the team contributed to the understanding of a new communication mechanism of tumor cells, thus identifying a potential new goal in developing targeted therapies to stop metastasis.