Dr. Bianca Calì receives 2025 SAKK/Astellas GU-Oncology Award

Dr. Bianca Calì, research associate in the Molecular Oncology Laboratory led by Prof. Andrea Alimonti, has been honored with the SAKK/Astellas GU-Oncology Award 2025, a prestigious award designed to support outstanding scientific and/or clinical achievements in the field of Genitourinary Cancers. The award ceremony took place in Interlaken on May 22.

The winning study, entitled “Coagulation factor X promotes resistance to androgen-deprivation therapy in prostate cancer” demonstrates that immunosuppressive neutrophils-derived coagulation factor X (FX) promotes androgen-independent prostate tumor growth. Furthermore, the study provides compelling evidence that antagonizing FX activity can enhance the effectiveness of androgen-deprivation therapy, and underscores a novel prognostic value of FX and related pathway molecules in prostate cancer patients.

The study is published in Cancer Cell: https://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(24)00317-9

The prize, issued by the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK), in collaboration with Astellas, with a value of CHF30’000.-, will be used to explore further strategies to target immunosuppressive neutrophils for prostate cancer therapy.