Dr. Diego Arango, head of the Molecular Oncology group at CIBBIM- Nanomedicine/VHIR, is starting this month an international research to determine if Aprataxin protein can be a biomarker of response to the most common treatment against colorectal cancer.The project is based on a "http://www.vhir.org/salapremsa/mitjans/mitjans_detall.asp?Idioma=es&mv1=5&mv2=1&mh1=0&mh2=0&mh3=0&mh4=0&ms=0&any=2010&num=18" VHIR’s study published at " "http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/16/8/2375.abstract?sid=d22d1c1a-77d0-4fdb-8e2a-3ca59e8be458" Clinical Cancer Research. With a cohort of 135 patients with advanced colorectal cancer, the study determined that patients with low levels of Aprataxin responded better to the Topoisomerase I inhibitors treatment. Nowadays most of the patients in Europe receive this treatment, although less than the 30% show an objective response.In this new project that will last until 2015, the international consortium, coordinated by Dr. Arango and made up of 5 European research groups, will assess the Aprataxin levels of more than 3,000 patients treated with Topoisomerase I inhibitors for stage II, III, and IV. The aim is to consolidate this protein as a biomarker to reduce the unnecessary toxicity and increase survival rates of patients. According to Dr. Arango, “it would be very important to know if patients will response to the treatment not only to avoid side effects, but also to save public funds, in that case, just will be treated the patients with a high probability to show an objective response.ERA-Net on Translational Cancer Research (TRANSCAN) will fund this project with more than 750,000 euros, 135,000 of which will be paid to VHIR.In Catalonia more than 30,000 people are diagnosed of colorectal cancer, a cohort that is up to 300,000 in Europe.