The Champalimaud Foundation and Philips celebrate (9th March 2023) an unprecedented partnership that, in five years, will reduce the carbon footprint of the Foundation's imaging equipment by 50%.

Global healthcare systems are responsible for significant carbon emissions – more than aviation or the shipping industry. If the health sector were a country, it would be the fifth largest polluter on the planet.

In 1975 (International Women’s Year), the United Nations recognised March 8 as International Women’s Day, but did you know that the date has been important to women’s rights since 1908, when hundreds of female workers in New York demonstrated to form their own union and demand the right to vote? Each year, this date reminds us to strive for a fairer society, regardless of gender.

When we hear about someone having been diagnosed with “stage IV” cancer, most of us know this is very bad news. It is the most advanced overall cancer stage.

Classifying – or staging – a cancer is paramount to determining the cancer’s prognosis (its likely evolution) and to choose the most appropriate treatment. A misclassified cancer can lead to wrong treatment options, including undertreatment or overtreatment.

February 22 is World Thinking Day, a date originally chosen in 1926 by the Girl Guides which now encourages everyone to take a moment to ponder the deeper questions and stand up for causes that could improve lives around the globe. 

It’s been over 20 years since neuroimaging studies – using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a widely-used technology to capture live videos of brain activity – have been detecting brain-wide complex patterns of correlated brain activity that appear disrupted in a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders. These patterns form spontaneously, even at rest when no particular task is being performed, and have been detected not only in humans but also across mammals, including monkeys and rodents. 

When we try walking in a straight line with our eyes closed, after a few steps forward we inevitably deviate from our intended path. But somehow our brain knows it – senses it –, and enables us to more or less correct that deviation error. To do it, we decide to inflect to our body a movement toward the opposite side of the deviation as we take our next step. 

Consider CT scans and PET scans. In oncologic radiology, these are two very popular diagnostic tools, meant for imaging the tissues inside the body and detect cancer. 

A CT-scan (CT for computerized tomography) gives detailed, static, images of the body’s internal organs and tissues. This is enough to see a rough image of a tumor, but may not always allow doctors to distinguish the exact frontier between benign and malignant tissues. 

This competitive initiative supports excellent group leaders who are in the process of establishing their laboratories. The awarded early-career scientists receive 50,000 euros annually for three to five years and can apply for additional grants of up to 10,000 euros per year.

The name of the project is “MetaBreast - Metaverse for Breast Cancer Surgery”. Developed specifically in the field of breast cancer, it may one day also be applicable in other surgical contexts. For now, its goal is to “develop and test a new medical device to visualize malignant tissue in real time inside the patient’s breast and within the operating room”, states the document presenting the project. One of MetaBreast’s participants is the Champalimaud Foundation’s (CF) Breast Unit, represented by breast cancer surgeon Pedro Gouveia.  

Interview with Marta Carriço, nutritionist at the Champalimaud Foundation.

Marta Carriço is a nutritionist in the Risk Assessment Programme team (Programa de Oncorrisco) at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre. In this interview, she explains what is known – and not known – about the impact of eating habits on the prevention of oncological disease, strongly favouring the Mediterranean diet.