Cancer Profiling

Multifactoral molecular-behavioural cancer profiling. Team leader: dr hab. Wojciech Jóźwicki, prof. UMK

Cancer is one of the most important medical problems in societies, especially in highly developed countries, where the incidence rate is continuously rising. Success in the fight against cancer that is based on systemic population treatment involving drugs with a comprehensive spectrum of oncological activity seems to be close to the limit of effectiveness. A step towards greater effectiveness of oncological therapy is to target treatment that takes into account not only the biological characteristics of cancer but also the patient’s condition. Targeted treatment assumes stratification of neoplastic tumours depending on their biological features and evaluated multiparametrically.

Our research team conducts works in two groups. Group 1 focuses on the characteristics of the tumour at the macro- and microscopic and molecular levels, i.e. at the level of tissue and cellular structural proteins, metabolic pathways and signalling pathways as well as at the genetic level. Group 2 addresses the issues of broadly understood psycho-oncology. The detailed characteristics of the biological nature of the tumour, including its micro- and macro-environment, enables to indicate new therapeutic goals, and thus the directions in the search for effective oncological therapies. Already today, the first targeted therapies effectively support patients in the fight against cancer in situations where population-based systemic treatment is not sufficient. This research also has a profound cognitive value, giving a better understanding of the cancer process – its formation, development, and impact on the living organism.

Research tasks are carried out in collaboration between two faculties: Faculty of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine. We take steps to internationalize the results of our research with foreign partners affiliated with research centres in the USA and Spain. We believe our research results will help build effective standards in oncological treatment.

Dr hab. Wojciech Jóźwicki, prof. UMK – Head of the Department of Pathology of Cancer and Pathomorphology, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Health Sciences, CM NCU. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Medical Academy in Bydgoszcz in 1987. After his postgraduate internship, he started working in the Department of Clinical Pathology, Medical Academy in Bydgoszcz. He obtained the first and second-degree specialization in pathomorphology in 1991 and 1996. He was awarded the degree of doctor of medical sciences in 2005, and the degree of doctor habilitated in 2017. His most important interests are related to the study of biological malignancy of the tumour and the search for new prognostic and predictive factors. He also collaborated in other research programs, including the role of the endocrine vitamin D system (vitamin D3 receptor, vitamin D-metabolizing enzymes) and melanogenesis in the pathogenesis of malignant melanoma. The results of the research are the subject of numerous publications. He has been involved in research projects aiming to define standards and strategies for the determination of somatic mutation in the CRAS, NRAS and EGFR genes in colorectal, lung and colorectal cancers, as well as several scientific international projects in collaboration with the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He was Chair of the Council for Scientific Development and Improvement of Treatment Quality at the Oncology Centre in Bydgoszcz between 2017-2019 and has been Voivodship Consultant in the field of pathomorphology in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodship since 2020.