Fondazione CDP and Fondazione AIRC: €1 million for cancer research in Italy
Cancer is one of the greatest health and research challenges in history. World Cancer Day, held every 4 February, aims to raise awareness of what each of us can do to fight the disease and improve prevention education.
For the second consecutive year, the chosen theme is “Close the care gap”, emphasising the commitment to ensuring equal treatment opportunities for all.
In Italy every day over a thousand people are diagnosed with cancer. And the situation has deteriorated in recent years. Covid has led to setbacks in the fight against cancer, mainly due to reduced screening activity. However, survival rates are continuing to improve: around 65% of women and 60% of men are alive five years after a cancer diagnosis.
Thanks to advances in research, cancer is becoming an increasingly curable disease. But there is still a gap between the North and South of the country.
To narrow this regional difference, Fondazione AIRC and Fondazione CDP have decided to jointly support the projects of two excellent researchers working in Southern Italy. The goal of the partnership is also to support female researchers in the Italian scientific sphere: women make up 63% of the approximately 6,000 researchers supported by AIRC.
The projects
The two Foundations have chosen to allocate €1 million to support the projects of two female scientists working in Southern Italy: Francesca Pisani, of the National Research Council of Naples, and Clelia Tiziana Storlazzi, from the University of Bari Aldo Moro.
The researchers will each receive a grant of around €500,000 over five years to support experimental work, with the aim of helping to develop new diagnosis and treatment methods.