IRST is a cancer medical institutions of excellence, where research scientists and clinicians work together to guarantee high quality patient care, originality, innovation, and transferability of most advanced biomedical research results into the clinical practice, being fully integrated within the Public Health System of the north-eastern area of Italy, and having access to clinical cases from a population of over 10.000.000 residents. IRST has gained extensive expertise with diverse EU funding actions and projects (i.e. FP9, Horizon 2020, EraNets funding scheme), related to a wide range of research fields, including onco-hematological disorders, immunotherapy, radiometabolic medicine, but with a particular focus on lung, breast and colorectal cancer. In 2018, IRST has treated some 7000 new patients and 22.000 overall, providing diagnostic-therapeutic programs for individually-tailored treatments, through a multidisciplinary approach, thanks to its prolonged experience in carrying out international clinical trials, on screening as well as on observational and interventional studies. Strong connections with both academy and industry can then guarantee a basement for further research networking and technology transfer of experimental discoveries.
Clinical and research activities are supported by:
- Unit of Biostatistics and Clinical Trials, which plays an active role in the planning and implementation of clinical protocols, in the standardization and quality control of data and databases, and in statistical data analysis;
- Information Technology System links up the regional Oncology Network. The electronic management of experimental and clinical data allows a more feasible data collection;
- The Biomolecular Diagnostic Unit of the Bioscience Laboratory works identifying molecular alterations of solid and hematological tumors that may have implications in clinical practice.
- The Cancer Registry records all new cases of cancer that occur in the population, distinguishing them by place of occurrence and morphological characteristics, following the trend of their rates of incidence and mortality (for malignant tumours) over time.
- The Research and Innovation Unit at IRST is responsible for: (i) preparing, drafting and updating intellectual property policies and procedures, encouraging technology development, and assisting researchers in transferring technology to industry and others for the public benefit; (ii) supporting partnership between biotech SMEs and research centres.