The Medical Oncology Group at IDIVAL celebrates two recognitions at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2025 Congress, held in Berlin last October. These milestones reinforce the team’s commitment to excellence in clinical and translational research and consolidate its international projection.
María Ibáñez Alda, ESMO Research Fellowship
ESMO has awarded oncologist María Ibáñez an ESMO Research Fellowship, endowed with €60,000 to carry out a one-year cancer research project with a clinical and translational focus. María will undertake her fellowship at the Institut Gustave Roussy (Villejuif, Paris), a leading European center where she had already completed an external rotation during her final year of residency. The project is scheduled to begin in early 2026, likely in the Department of New Drug Development. Beyond the individual merit, the fellowship highlights the importance of residents and junior doctors being aware of such competitive opportunities, which allow them to acquire advanced skills and build high-impact international collaborations.
Nerea Muñoz Unceta: “Best Poster” at ESMO and New SEOM Fellowship for Translational Research
Dr. Nerea Muñoz received the “Best Poster” award at ESMO in the germ cell tumor section for a study summarizing five years of collaboration between the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), the Sols-Morreale Biomedical Research Institute (IIBM), and 19 Spanish centers, involving samples from 93 patients and 126 advanced germ cell tumors. The study presents a comprehensive transcriptomic analysis that distinguished histological subtypes, identified expression patterns linked to platinum sensitivity or resistance, and characterized a more immunologically active tumor microenvironment in cases with better treatment response. The next step will be to validate the results in an external cohort to advance toward a predictive signature of platinum response in advanced germ cell tumors.
This work is part of the GRES project (“Molecular characterization of platinum resistance in advanced germ cell tumors”), led by Dr. Ignacio Durán Martínez, which brings together professionals from HUMV, IDIVAL, IIBM, and CNIO to identify biological mechanisms associated with cisplatin resistance and move toward a predictive signature that enables personalized treatment.
In addition to the award received at ESMO, Dr. Muñoz has obtained a fellowship from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) for the same project. She will coordinate the study, which addresses a clinically relevant problem in germ cell tumors, the most frequent malignant neoplasm in young men.
