Prof. Necchi receives the “Beppe Della Porta” Award by the President of the Republic

On Monday, Oct. 30, in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, the annual ceremony dedicated to AIRC Foundation was held at the Quirinale Palace, an event that opens "I Giorni della Ricerca", an initiative that since 1995 has been informing the public about the latest advances in cancer research, from prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and involves citizens in donating to support the careers of young researchers and new scientific programs.

The Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, the Minister of University and Research Anna Maria Bernini, the President Andrea Sironi and the Scientific Director Federico Caligaris Cappio of the AIRC Foundation, Doctor Luca Boldrini, doctor and researcher at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, have presented the results of a year of work for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer to President Sergio Mattarella. The complexity that characterizes oncology research was underlined and the need to strengthen funding to respond to the growing need for those projects of excellent scientific quality which, today, remain partly excluded from the albeit significant investment of the AIRC Foundation: over 137 million euros in 2023 alone intended for 6,000 researchers working mainly in public institutions.

“Italy has a long history of excellence in scientific research but, while other European countries have increased investments, we still invest too little in our country” – declared Andrea Sironi. “Since the 2008 crisis, public spending on research and development has steadily decreased and has fallen to 0.55 percent of GDP and has only risen to 0.65% in the last three years. Adding private spending to public spending brings it to 1.46 percent of GDP, which is far below that of the leading economies in the European Union (France at 2.45 percent, Germany above 3 percent). Faced with these data, the Italian scientific community is facing a complex situation that jeopardizes the country's ability to compete globally and to attract and retain the most capable and promising young people, those who we ourselves train in our universities with significant investments. We need to invest to reverse this trend since cancer remains a national emergency and scientific research is the only real weapon we have to fight cancer alongside prevention and early diagnosis. A commitment for which AIRC intends to do its part in synergy with the government, academic institutions and businesses".

At the end of the ceremony, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella presented four important awards to AIRC scientists and supporters. The biennial “Beppe Della Porta” Award was awarded to Andrea Necchi, UniSR Associate Professor of Medical Oncology and medical oncologist at the Medical Oncology Unit of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital for pioneering studies on the use of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in bladder cancer. The Award was created to encourage the consolidation of the scientific career of a young researcher who, working at a scientific structure in our country, has acheived original and internationally renowned results in the field of cancer research.

Prof. Necchi comments:

“This recognition rewards the activity that my entire group has carried out over the last 5 years through the conduct of clinical trials with pre-operative immunotherapy in muscle-infiltrating bladder tumors. From these studies, much evidence has been generated in favor of the role of biomarkers predictive of response to immunotherapy, studies that were possible thanks to the contribution of AIRC, and which continue today thanks to an AIRC investigator grant with which we will apply the evidence acquired to a new generation of clinical trials in the same patient setting".