Updated 8pm

A team of University of Malta researchers has set off to unravel "the little-known processes behind elusive tumours" in the pituitary - a small gland under the brain.

This gland helps regulate hormones and various other processes in the body, so when a tumour develops there, patients may experience a wide spectrum of severe symptoms such as vision impairment and changes in metabolism.

The research is being made possible through a €1.2 million grant by the Emanuele Cancer Research Foundation Malta (ECRFM). 

The university said that because of "significant knowledge gap" in the role of the immune system in pituitary tumours, academic Josanne Vassallo "painstakingly set up" a Maltese pituitary tumour tissue bank which has been in operation since the year 2000.

This extensive tissue bank is now "an invaluable resource" at the heart of this study, which aims to increase the "fundamental understanding" of the interplay between immune cells and cancer cells in pituitary tumours.

Vassallo is being joined by research immunologist David Saliba to explore, with the help of "unbiased experimental methods", how pituitary tumours progress. 

The university said there has been a resurgence of immune system-based therapies in the treatment of cancers in recent years.

This field of research centres on the ability to stimulate the patient’s immune system to target tumour cells without causing damage to normal healthy cells.

To contribute to this growing field, Vassallo and Saliba will lead a team of researchers based at the University of Malta's Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and the Faculty of Health Sciences in collaboration with the Neuroendocrine Clinic at Mater Dei Hospital.

The new knowledge will contribute towards the understanding of how these tumours arise and will provide an attractive model for developing new insights, directly applicable to other brain tumours, the university said.

Colorectal tumour research

Another, separate research project to receive funding will look at whether molecular profiling (which can be likened to to finger printing) can help classify tumours causing colorectal cancer, identify possible markers to measure tumour progression as well as response to therapy.

Treatment for colorectal cancer, the fourth most common type of cancer, is currently based on the stage and location of the tumour, resulting in highly variable clinical outcomes.

Six groups of researchers from the University of Malta will now come together to study molecular profiling for the classification of colorectal tumours, in a €980,000 research project dubbed Molmed. 

Apart from assisting in the clinical assessment, molecular profiling has the potential to predict which tumours might develop into metastatic disease and thus help identify cases that might require more aggressive treatment.

The project is being led by professor Godfrey Grech as the principal investigator, with Byron Baron, Anthony Fenech, Gary Hunter, Therese Hunter and Christian Scerri as co-investigators, together with their respective teams. 

First tranche of funding

During the signing of the grants on Tuesday, foundation chair Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said funding for such research was important.

Last year, there were 2,500 newly diagnosed cancer cases in Malta, and, although survival rates are continuously improving, between 900 and 1,000 people in the country still die from cancer each year. 

According to the national cancer plan, by 2040, cancer mortality is forecast to reach about 35% of all deaths in women and 40% of all deaths in men.

Presided over by Research and Innovation Minister Owen Bonnici, the signing secures the first tranche from a total of €2.5 million.

Together with the backing of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro-Internazionale, the ECRFM provides an opportunity to put Malta on the map in the fight against cancer, while attracting collaborators from major laboratories across the globe.

Touring the lab, which got an injection of €2.5 million for the purchase of equipment last year, Bonnici said research was key to resolving the challenges society faced, especially in health and medical treatment.

This sentiment was echoed by university rector Alfred Vella who said he was grateful for the support given by the ministry - to keep elevating Malta’s research profile, and by the ECRFM - for investing not just in the projects but also in university talent.