Anna Orlova and Lena Friberg receive SEK 6.75 million from the Swedish Cancer Society

2023-11-16

The Faculty of Pharmacy congratulates Anna Orlova and Lena Friberg on receiving SEK 6.75 million from the Swedish Cancer Society. Research with a focus on early diagnosis and therapy of prostate cancer and patient-reported well-being during treatment will follow.

Anna Orlova and Lena Friberg, Faculty of Pharmacy
Anna Orlova and Lena Friberg, the Faculty of Pharmacy

The Swedish Cancer Society has announced the results of this autumn's call and invests a total of SEK 6.75 million in research at the Faculty of Pharmacy. Anna Orlova, Professor at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, receives SEK 3.75 million for her project Theranostics for prostate cancer: Combined targeted radionuclide imaging and therapy, a development of her ongoing work with a focus on early diagnosis and therapy of prostate cancer.

Ulrika Rosenström and Ayman Abousayed
Ulrika Rosenström and Ayman Abousayed

“We have, in collaboration with Associate Professor Ulrika Rosenström, developed bispecific peptides that bind to two target molecules formed at different stages of prostate cancer and enable imaging and treatment of metastatic prostate cancer, preclinically evaluated by our former PhD student Ayman Abousayed. We are currently conducting a Phase 1 study that indicates very promising results, and will, with this generous grant from the Swedish Cancer Society, recruit a postdoc with the aim of adding the therapeutic dimension to our method,” says Anna Orlova.

Lena Friberg, Professor at the Department of Pharmacy, receives SEK 3 million for her project Model-informed and patient-focused strategies to guide the dosage of anticancer drugs – a study of how cancer patients experience long-term treatments.

“To be frank, we know that many patients value a good last time in life more than an extra month characterized by severe pain. This makes perceived quality of life during cancer therapy an increasingly prioritized aspect of both development and use of new drugs, and we will therefore via survey data analyze the participants' self-reported outcome measures,” says Lena Friberg.

In a parallel study, Lena Friberg's research group will also map the possibilities of using tumor products in the blood to analyze how individual care recipients respond to a therapy already at an early stage of a treatment.

Maddalena Centanni, Han Liu and Eman Ibrahim
Maddalena Centanni, Eman Ibrahim and Han Liu

“Three of our PhD students, Maddalena Centanni, Eman Ibrahim and Han Liu, have done excellent preparatory work on the preliminary results that form the basis of our upcoming work. Somthing that is extra important when funded by the Swedish Cancer Society and, indirectly, all the donors who generously choose to continue support research despite tougher financial times, for which we are of course very grateful” states Lena Friberg.

FACTS

  • In this call, the Swedish Cancer Society have allocated SEK 740 million to 224 research projects

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CONTACT

Anna Orlova, ProfessorAnna Orlova, Professor
Department of Medicinal Chemistry
Anna.Orlova@ilk.uu.se

Lena Friberg, professorLena Friberg, Professor
Department of Pharmacy
Lena.Friberg@farmaci.uu.se

Text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt

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Last modified: 2021-05-31