PROCEEDINGS BOOK
WELCOME
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
As Presidents of the 7th ASPIC International Congress, and on behalf of the ASPIC Board, as well as the Organizing and Scientific Committees, it is with great enthusiasm that we invite you to attend this upcoming edition, taking place on June 25th and 26th, 2026, at the IPO Porto Auditorium in Porto, Portugal.
After the great success of the 2024 Congress held in the Algarve, we are excited to bring the ASPIC Congress back to Porto. This seventh edition promises to be another rewarding and outstanding scientific meeting. Our goal is to highlight the cutting-edge cancer research being conducted in Portugal, while also welcoming leading international experts to ensure the highest scientific standards.
We warmly encourage you to take an active part in the Congress. It will be an excellent opportunity to engage with a vibrant scientific programme and to establish new contacts and collaborations. The meeting will feature oral presentations and two dynamic and participative Poster Sessions, providing a platform for sharing results, discoveries, and ideas.
ASPIC also remains committed to strengthening the dialogue between researchers, oncologists, and patient advocates. In this spirit, we are pleased to announce that we will once again organize the ASPIC Patients’ Advocacy Poster Walkthrough 2026 to promote the exchange of perspectives and knowledge. Our aim is to foster new research directions and scientific discoveries that may have a meaningful impact on the lives and treatment of cancer patients.
We look forward to welcoming you to Porto for what we are confident will be an inspiring and engaging event.
Júlio Oliveira and Vítor Veloso
(Presidents of the 7th ASPIC International Congress)
Scientific & Organizing Commitee
Carmen Jerónimo
Joana Paredes
João Taborda Barata
Luísa Melo
Rui M. Reis
Sandra Casimiro
Scientific Evaluation Committee
Chairs: Célia Gomes and Ana Cristina Gonçalves
Ana Sofia Ribeiro
Ana-Teresa Maia
Branca Cavaco
Celso Reis
João Lobo
Marta Soares
Rita Fior
Scientific Programme
Europe/Lisbon ( GMT)
25th June, 2026
09:00h – 09:30h
Official Opening
Carmen Jerónimo (ASPIC, CI-IPOPorto/ICBAS-UP, PT), Júlio Oliveira (IPOPorto) and Vítor Veloso (LPCC-NRN)
Opening Sessions
Chair: João Barata and Sandra Casimiro
09:30h – 10:00h
EACR Lecture: From Screens to Solutions: CRISPR-Guided Target Discovery and Drug Combination Design
Roderick L. Beijersbergen (NKI, The Netherlands)
10:00h – 10:30h
EAU Section of Urological Research Lecture: Using liquid biopsy to personalize treatment and improve outcomes in bladder cancer
Lars Dyrskjøt (Aarhus University, DK)
10:30h – 11:00h
ASEICA Lecture: Liquid biopsy in breast cancer: Clinical applications and future strategies
Rafael López (President of ASEICA, IDIS, Spain)
11:00h – 11:30h
COFFEE BREAK
Symposium I – Environmental and Hereditary Risk Factors
Chair: Ana-Teresa Maia and Rui Reis
11:30h – 12:00h
Cancer Syndromes: Genotype–phenotype associations and the cost of complex care pathways
Carla Oliveira (i3S, Porto, Portugal)
12:00h – 12:15h
Selected Oral Communication:
Systemic Reprogramming of Hematopoiesis by Colorectal Tumors
Ana Luísa Machado (i3S, Porto, Portugal)
12:15h – 12:45h
Environmental risk factors for early onset colorectal cancer
Sandra Perdomo (Genetic Section of IARC, Lyon, France)
12:45h – 13.00h
Selected Oral Communication:
ADARB1 drives nuclear plasticity downstream of E-cadherin loss in Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer
Luísa Carvalho (i3S, Porto, Portugal)
13:00h – 14:00h
LUNCH
14:00h – 16:00h
Poster Session (odd numbers) and Patients' Advocacy Poster Walkthrough
16:00h – 16:30h
COFFEE BREAK
Symposium II – Emergent Hallmarks in Cancer
Chairs: Rui Henrique and Céu Figueiredo
16:30h – 17:00h
Sticky situation: Bacterial-epithelial contact drives colorectal cancer and IgA pathology
Lars Vereecke (CRIG e VIB, Belgium)
17:00h – 17.15h
Selected Oral Communication:
Rab27a Loss Defines an Inflammatory and Therapeutically Vulnerable Subtype of Pancreatic Cancer
Carolina Dias (i3S, Porto, Portugal)
17:15h – 17:45h
Investigating the role of Dexamethasone in Medulloblastoma progression beyond its anti-inflammatory effects
Adriana Sánchez-Danés (Fundação Champalimaud, Lisbon, Portugal)
17:45h – 18.00h
Selected Oral Communication:
Macrophage-driven survival pathways enable resistance to radiotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer
Ana Manuela Borges (i3S, Porto, Portugal)
18:00h – 19.00h
ASPIC General Assembly and Elections
20:00h
Congress Dinner
26th June, 2026
9:00h – 09:30h
USA-PT Initiative against Cancer (UPIC) Lecture: Sensory neurons are needed for both initiation and progression of stomach cancer
Chair: Joana Paredes and Rita Fior
Timothy C. Wang (Columbia University, USA)
ASPIC-SPO Joint Symposium
Chairs: Marta Soares (ASPIC) and Nuno Bonito (SPO)
09:30h – 10:00h
Liquid biopsies as a prognostic factor – Colorectal cancer as a model
Nuno Bonito (Pr. SPO, IPO-Coimbra, Portugal)
10:00h – 10:30h
Precision medicine in the treatment of lung cancer
João Moreira Pinto (OncMed HLuz, Lisboa, Portugal)
10:30h – 11:00h
Prospective clinical trials of radioligand therapy in oncology (2015–2025): A decade of pivotal evidence
James Nagarajah (Radboud University Medical Center, The Netherlands)
11:00h – 11:30h
COFFEE BREAK
Symposium III – Cancer Cell Mechanisms
Chairs: Celso Reis and Célia Gomes
11:30h – 12:00h
Mechano-metabolic adaptations during metastatic dissemination
Vittoria Graziani (ICR, London, UK)
12:00h – 12:15h
Selected Oral Communication:
Multi-matrix proteomics reveal urine-derived extracellular vesicles as an enriched source of bladder cancer-specific proteins
Catarina Lourenço (CI-IPO Porto, Portugal)
12:15h – 12:45h
Lysosome exocytosis as a therapeutic target in cancer progression
Duarte Barral (NOVA Medical School, Lisbon, Portugal)
12:45h – 13:00h
Selected Oral Communication:
Development of a microRNA-regulated cell death-inducing gene therapy for T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Mafalda Duque (GIMM, Lisboa, Portugal)
13:00h – 14:00h
LUNCH
14:00h – 16:00h
Poster Session (even numbers) and Patients' Advocacy Poster
Walkthrough
16:00h – 16.30h
COFFEE BREAK
ASPIC – Porto.CCC Raquel Seruca Joint Symposium – Clinical Trials Driven by Biomarkers
Chairs: Carmen Jerónimo and José Carlos Machado
16:30h – 17:00h
Genomic guided platform studies: The «Basket of Baskets» approach
Irene Braña (Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, Spain)
17:00h – 17:15h
Selected Oral Communication:
Novel CAR T formulations targeting tumor-associated glycoepitopes: A new strategy for solid tumors
Rafaela Abrantes (i3S, Porto, Portugal)
17:15h – 17:45h
Delivering precision immunotherapy with MANIFEST and RISE
Jonathan Lim (The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, UK)
17:45h – 18:00h
Selected Oral Communication:
Fishing for new immunotherapy compounds to boost innate-tumor rejection
Rita Fior (F.Champalimaud, Lisbon, Portugal)
18:00h – 18:30h
Towards academic Point-of-Care CAR-T cell therapy in the Netherlands
Edwin Bremer (University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands)