IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori Regina Elena

The Regina Elena National Cancer Institute in Rome (IRE) has been operating in the most advanced areas of research and treatment of oncological diseases since 1933.

The IRE is a center of excellence for national and international cancer research and patient care, and is involved in biomolecular and instrumental diagnostics, epidemiology and early diagnostics, implementing standard and innovative protocols for the treatment and rehabilitation for cancer patients. The Institute has been recognized since 1939 as an IRCCS, technically an Istituto di Ricerca e Cura a Carattere Scientifico- Institute for scientific research and patient care (which was last renewed by the DM of the Ministry of Health on 8th May, 2020). It maintains a high-quality level, is ISO 9001:2015 certified and has obtained an OECI accreditation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. The IRE is also an associate member of the International DIGICORE Consortium for the study of clinical outcomes in cancer through digital tools.

The Translational Research Groups involving; Genomics, NonCoding RNAs, Melanoma, Rare Tumors, Brain Tumors, Immunotherapy, Artificial Intelligence and Imaging teams; together with the Strategic Research Plan 2020-2022, ensure to adopt a multidisciplinary approach and the translational management of cancer patients (the acronym PRESTO “PREsa in carico Traslazionale del paziente Oncologico”), thus fostering a synergy between research and clinical areas to achieve relevant clinical outcomes in a relatively short time. In 2018, the Molecular Tumor Board MTB was established with the aim to identify personalized therapeutic profiles for the treatment of cancer patients without multiple therapeutic options. It has recently consolidated its presence both within the Lazio region as well as within the national territory. Alongside the MTB, yet again in the field of personalized medicine, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) capable of imitating or reproducing intelligent behaviors, such as language, pattern recognition or classification, is now well established. These techniques provide new predictive and prognostic models for cancer patients facilitating a new era of high-resolution medicine and the acceleration of biomedical data digitization processes. The Institute is also equipped with a Clinical Trials Center and a Phase I Study Center which have the strategic goal of bridging the existing “gaps” between experimental and clinical research on the one hand, and clinical research and direct patient care on the other; as well as a Phase IV Unit whose studies ensure the diagnostic framing, treatment and follow-up of patients diagnosed with breast cancer in the different settings, namely neoadjuvant, adjuvant and metastatic.

A significant increase in translational research has led to intensifying personalized and precision medicine, a new approach to the treatment and prevention of disease which considers the genetic and epigenetic profile of individual cancers, genetic predisposition, environment, and lifestyles. Oncogenomics, epigenetics, proteomics, and pharmacogenetics are the tools used to study and analyze gene expression profiles for identifying specific alterations that are relevant to pathogenesis, prognosis, and therapy, as well as for identifying the most favorable drug and/or therapeutic combinations.

The Oncology Biobank for Research Purposes IRE (BBIRE) was established in order to implement basic, clinical and translational oncology research, one of the main strategic assets of the Institute which aims to collect, store and distribute human biological material, tissues and biological fluids, and associated data. At the time of writing this (November 2022), the Oncology Biobank holds more than 72,234 vials of biological fluids (whole blood, serum, plasma, PBMCs) from more than 3427 patients and more than 18,690 tumor tissue samples (FFPE, OCT, Snap Frozen) and fresh tissue (96 cases for Organoids) from more than 1,635 cancer patients.

The IRE also contains a Skeletal Muscle Tissue Bank, the only one in central southern Italy, as well as the first ever public Ovarian Tissue Bank in central Italy.

Within the field of surgery, the Institute was among the first to introduce the use of laparoscopic and robotic surgery for increasingly conservative operations and is committed to optimizing robotic techniques in all areas. The Division of Gynecologic Oncology Surgery is a great example of this, which performs 85 percent of surgeries with minimally invasive techniques. The Division is among the very few in Italy and

Europe to perform robotic surgery with a single micro-incision of the umbilicus. The operating rooms are high-tech and equipped with the latest in multimedia. A modern sentinel lymph node analysis technique for breast cancers and the extensive use of laparoscopic techniques are always used to safeguard a patient’s quality of life as much as possible, ensuring the best therapeutic efficacy.

The Institute is a regional referral center for familial polyposis for GHD in adults as well as being a regional hub for overseas treatment in radiotherapy, oncology and neurosurgery. It is also a member of various networks, including: EURACAN European Network for the Study and Treatment of Rare Solid Tumors in Adults, EATRIS National and European Network for Translational Research, EORTC European Network for Research and Treatment of Oncologic Diseases, UICC International Network for Control of Oncologic Diseases, the ACC, RAMS and RIN national networks.