The educational building of MútuaTerrassa hosted last Wednesday, January 9, the act of defense of the doctoral thesis "Optimization of oncological treatment by the patient with native RAS metastatic colorectal cancer" developed by Dr. Julen Fernández Plana, Deputy Medical Service of Oncology of HUMT. Dr. Clara Montagut Viladot, head of section of the Oncology Service of the Hospital del Mar was in charge of directing it and Dr. Aleix Prat Aparicio, head of the Oncology Service of the Clinical Hospital, to tutor it.

The work, which received an excellent rating (pending cum laude), delves into the optimization of oncological treatment of patients suffering from metastatic native RAS colorectal cancer. This is one of the most frequent in Western countries and is the second cause of cancer death in Spain.

It is estimated that up to half of all patients will eventually have metastatic disease. Treatment with chemotherapy is standard in this situation but there are several scenarios and different treatments, among them the anti-EGFR-available through which it is possible to significantly increase the survival of these patients. It is therefore necessary to optimize the treatment of patients with this type of cancer and it is at this point that the doctoral thesis of Dr. Fernández strikes.

The court was formed by Dr. Ferran Losa Gaspà, head of the Medical Oncology Service of the Integral Health Consortium (St. Joan Despí Moisès Broggi Hospital) and to the Oncology Service of the ICO-Hospitalet (president), Dr. David Páez López-Bravo, adjunct to the Oncology Service of the Hospital of Santa Cruz and San Pablo (secretary) and Dr. Elena Élez Fernández, assistant of the Oncology Service of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital (vocal).