The Garrahan will incorporate a new cancer diagnostic technique in the child with the help of the Messi Foundation

The Garrahan Hospital will integrate by the end of the year a new diagnostic technique in the country for a frequent type of brain tumor in the child, this is just one of the advances promoted by the agreement with the Messi Foundation to collaborate with a reference medical center in Barcelona.

"Before the end of the year, we are going to have a technique for molecular diagnosticit's not in the country, for the medulloblastoma, which is a very common type in tumors of the central nervous system, "said Telam Guillermo Chantada, coordinator of Precision Medicine and leading researcher at the health center.

The specialist explained that this technique was only one of the many advances that the hospital could achieve thanks to the formalization announced today of an agreement with the Messi Foundation will provide 100,000 euros for a research unit to be opened next to the CONICET, called the I + G execution unit (Garrahan-Conicet).

"We have been collaborating with the Messi Foundation for many years, having one stop in Argentina and one in Barcelona, ​​Spain, and thanks to this, we have teamed up with Sant Joan de Déu hospital in Barcelona, ​​the third Europe's largest pediatric health center, "explained Chantada.

The researcher pointed out that "to date, more than 50 Garrahan professionals have been trained in Sant Joan de Déu, which will open this year a".Cancer Center & # 39; which is a specialized unit in childhood cancer that exists only in another country of Europe ".

Half of the Euros paid by the Messi Foundation will go to training scholarships for Argentine professionals in this center of the Barcelona Hospital, while the other half will be used for "research on tumors of the central nervous system, commonly called brain tumors".

Tumors of the central nervous system are the second type of cancer common in children and the estimated percentage of survival is between 50 and 60%, unlike leukemia, which, although more prevalent, allows the patient to achieve complete remission in most cases.

"The Garrahan has several lines of research, for example we have one that works with retinoblastoma (tumor in the retina), another line that develops the vaccine against neuroblastoma, which we do next to Quilmes University, but we had so far had nothing with tumors of the central nervous system, "he explained.

One of the key elements that will be developed with the Messi Foundation's contributions is the creation of the Molecular Pathology Laboratory which they believe will be ready by the middle of the year.

"This is what will allow us to move forward in the diagnosis of medulloblastoma, and this is what we call" local capacity building ", which means for example not to depend on an outside laboratory to perform the procedures. samples, "he said.

The Garrahan Oncology Department was born in 1987 with the founding of the hospital; currently serves one third of cases of cancer in children from the country: 26.16% corresponds to leukemia; 21, 26 at tumors of the central nervous system; and 52.58 to solid tumors.