The Research Days of AIRC, the Italian Association for Cancer Research, are back. With this eight-day initiative, AIRC provides information on the developments and progress of research carried out by experts in the field of cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, with the aim of gathering new resources to make this disease increasingly curable.

The eight days started on 4 November with a rich calendar of events until Sunday 11 November, involving television and radio broadcasts of RAI, schools and universities, stadiums and footballers of Serie A and thousands of squares with volunteers.

Humanitas will also be the protagonist of these days by setting up an information and fundraising banquet on 8 and 9 November, inside its spaces.

 

New cases, new challenges

There are 373,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in Italy in the last year, more than 1000 per day, according to data collected at AIRC: forecasts for the coming years indicate that in 2030 cancer will be the leading cause of death in the world with 21.6 million new cases per year.

For this reason, doctors and researchers are facing this emergency focusing in particular on the study of methods for increasingly early diagnosis and increasingly personalized treatments that, in the last two decades, have contributed to a steady decrease in mortality. In Italy, in particular, more people are being healed today, as evidenced by the data that place Italy at the top of Europe for healings. In our country today more than 3.3 million people have passed a diagnosis of cancer and have a life expectancy comparable to that of those who have never been sick.

“The results obtained so far are significant, but they are not enough. For this reason it is essential to ensure continuity for researchers to understand and treat all cancers – stresses Federico Caligaris Cappio, AIRC Scientific Director. The results are obtained by assessing the patient at the center and using a global approach made of funding, technology, and inventiveness. Cancer does not wait and for this reason AIRC is working at national and international level to speed up the discoveries and patients’ arrival in the clinic.

 

The chocolates of the Research and many other appointments

A simple – and greedy – way to support Research against a donation of only 10 euros: these are the Chocolates of Research, sold on Saturday, November 10 by AIRC volunteers in over a thousand Italian squares to concretely support the work of about 5,000 AIRC scientists working in laboratories of universities, hospitals and research institutions.

In addition to the appointment in the square, there is a rich calendar during the Days of Research: Among the various initiatives, there are also the ‘RAI per AIRC’ campaign, which through the solidarity number 45521 aims to raise users’ awareness of donations, meetings in more than 85 high schools – which open the doors to researchers and volunteers of the Association to learn about the new frontiers of cancer research and the stories of its protagonists, through the testimony of those who have done a job in research – and ‘Un Gol per la Ricerca’, which will see samples from players such as Leonardo Bonucci, Claudio Marchisio, Matteo Politano and Alessio Romagnoli.