Octavio Frias de Oliveira Award announces winners – 08/11/2023 – Health

For Ordália Machado, 84, her grandson is a doctor and his wife is about to follow the same career path. After all, in her view, anyone studying to be a doctor can only be a doctor, especially working with patients with leukemia. But João Agostinho Machado Neto, 36, and Keli Lima, 39, are scientists, and this Friday (11) they were announced as winners in the Oncology Research category of the 14th edition of the Octavio Frias de Oliveira Award.

Promoted by Icesp (São Paulo State Cancer Institute Octavio Frias de Oliveira) in partnership with Grupo Folha, the award was created in 2010 to encourage studies on cancer prevention and treatment and honors Octavio Frias de Oliveira. “Seu” Frias, as almost everyone called him, was publisher of Sheet from 1962 until his death in 2007.

Also awarded were researchers from Onkos Diagnostics Moleculars, in the Technological Innovation in Oncology category, and former Minister of Health José Serra, 81, was awarded in the Outstanding Personality category.

The event also paid tribute to physician José Eluf Neto, who died in January. Professor at FMUSP (Faculty of Medicine at USP), he dedicated his life to the epidemiology of cancer and was represented by the physician Valeria Buccheri, his partner.

“Eluf was a person of integrity who did not censor himself. He did not let anything that bothered him go unnoticed”, said Roger Chammas, professor at FMUSP and president of the 14th edition of the award. “He was the necessary critic for the development of this institution, not only as an epidemiologist.”

In this year’s edition, 32 works were registered. Neto and Lima won for the article that shows the ability of a molecule called THZ-P1-2 to trigger the death of leukemic cells.

Unlike normal cells, cancer cells multiply uncontrollably, using a lot of energy. This is possible for two reasons: they are capable of generating the necessary structures for the new cells to function; and they manage to recycle the mitochondria –the energy generators– if these give any problem.

In this process, there is the participation of lipids (fat molecules) that help to form the membrane of new cancer cells, contribute to the proper functioning of mitochondria and act in communication between cells.

What Neto, Lima and their colleagues at USP and at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, discovered is that THZ-P1-2 inhibits the production of these lipids, leading to the death of leukemic cells.

Graduated in chemistry and physics, Lima decided to pursue an academic career after accompanying Ordália’s grandson to a Unicamp laboratory. At the time, João Neto was doing his doctorate in internal medicine and, when he couldn’t go back to Salto de Pirapora (96 km from São Paulo) for the weekend, Lima went to meet him in Campinas.

Dating turned into marriage and work partnership. Now a professor at the ICB-USP (Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the University of São Paulo), Neto supervised the award-winning article along with Lima’s advisor, Eduardo Magalhães Rego, a professor at FMUSP and an international reference in hematology.

“Our work was the first to show the action of THZ-P1-2 in leukemic cells. Now, we can try to identify other types of cancer that also depend on this metabolism”, stated Neto.

The couple received the award from the hands of Eloisa Bonfá, director of FMUSP, and Marco Antonio Zago, president of Fapesp (Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo).

Researcher Bruna Moretto Rodrigues, representative of Onkos, received the award from Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Júnior, dean of USP, and Venâncio Avancini Ferreira Alves, full professor of pathology at FMUSP.

The Onkos team was chosen for the article in which they detail the use of a test to detect thyroid cancer. The exam is indicated for patients with a thyroid nodule classified as 3 or 4 in the Bethesda system, a scale of risk of being malignant. In these cases, there is no definition as to whether the nodule is benign or malignant, and the patient often undergoes surgery that later turns out to be unnecessary.

The test began to be outlined in 2016, when scientists coordinated by Marcos Tadeu Santos, 38, began to study the microRNAs —small RNA molecules that regulate the gene expression of cells— existing in thyroid nodules.

In 2018, the group published an article detailing the analysis and identification of 11 relevant microRNAs for the diagnosis of malignancy and, in the new work, presented the results of applying the test in 440 nodules from 435 patients.

“The American test costs more than R$ 20,000 for the patient and ours costs R$ 4,100”, compared Santos, doctor in genetics and molecular biology from Unicamp and founder of Onkos.

According to the researcher, the company is negotiating with the ANS (National Agency for Supplementary Health) and the Ministry of Health to propose the incorporation of the test, whose commercial name is mir-THYpe, in private and public networks. “We showed that it reduces surgeries that are much more expensive.”

“It is an award that fills with pride the Sheet“, said Sérgio Dávila, editorial director of the newspaper, in the opening of the event, held at the Icesp auditorium, in São Paulo. “It is also an honor to share this ceremony with people who dedicate their lives to science and health.”

Outstanding Personality

The third prize, Outstanding Personality, was awarded to José Serra, who was unable to attend the ceremony.

Serra headed the Ministry of Health from 1998 to 2002. In addition, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Planning, federal deputy, senator, mayor of São Paulo and governor of São Paulo.

One of the reasons for choosing its name was the creation of Icesp, the largest public center in Latin America dedicated to the treatment of cancer patients.

The building in Cerqueira César, in the west zone of São Paulo, began to be built in 1987, to function as a women’s health center, but the work was stopped for years.

During this period, the number of cancer cases grew, and Serra, then governor of São Paulo, agreed with the idea of ​​directing the unit to oncological treatment.

The hospital was delivered on May 6, 2008 and, since then, has seen more than 127,000 patients.

Other reasons for Serra’s nomination were the Generics Law and his role in the Anti-Smoking Law, which had a great impact on the drop in the number of cases of lung cancer. Neoplasm is the only one in which the country approaches the UN target of, by 2030, reducing by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases.