Research Advisory Board

• Internal Research Committee
o Scientific Director
o Director of Innovation and Development
o Deputy Director General
o Clinical Director
o Director of Center of Surgery
o Director of Medical Oncology
o Director of Diagnostics and Imaging
o Director of the Center of Pathology

• External Research Advisory Board
o Professor Peter Boyle, Director of iPRI
o Professor Gunnar Saeter, Director of Research, Oslo University Hospital
o Professor Ulrik Ringborg, Director Cancer Center, Karolinska Institutet

Research Departments at the National Institute of Oncology

• Pathogenetics
• Molecular Genetics
• Molecular Immunology and Toxicology
• Experimental Pharmacology
• Biochemistry
• Radiation Biology
• Clinical Research

Current Research Programmes at the National Institute of Oncology

• Analysis of genetic diversity in the Hungarian population
• Discovering new targets to develop novel therapies
• Elucidation of molecular pathways responsible for treatment resistance
• Identification of new molecular markers for diagnosis and response to therapy
• Molecular diagnostics facility to ensure precision medicine to become a success. (molecular diagnostics, imaging, novel genetic based diagnostic panels, functional proteomics, innovative biomarkers, analyses of circulating tumor cells or exosomes etc)
• Prevention and early detection of hereditary cancers (breast, colorectal)

Clinical Research

• Wide scale of high profile research activities
o Both prospective and retrospective studies
o Increasing number of clinical trials and patients enrolled in these trials
 In 2015: 93 with 894 newly enrolled patients
 In 2016: 111 with 1062 newly enrolled patients
o Sponsored trials
o Collaborations with leading agencies (EORTC, International Breast Cancer Study Group etc)
o Investigator initiated and academic trials

Basic Research

• New basic research groups
o Department of Molecular Immunology and Toxicology
o Experimental Pharmacology
• New directions in basic cancer research
o Functional Proteomics
o Redox tumor-biology
o Development of novel therapies
o Mechanistic insights into regulation of cellular signaling from new angles
o Drug-peptide conjugates

Translational Research

National Oncogenomic project
• Coordinating role for NIO
• In the framework of this project—pioneering in the Eastern European context—the following objectives are aimed to be achieved by the consortium:
• Genomic examinations of solid organ and hematopoietic tumors in Hungarian patients.
• Identification of "driver" genes responsible for tumor phenotypes and the associated signaling pathways.
• Classification of the tumors’ new molecular genetic alterations using Big Data analyses.
• Detection of specific genetic alterations of individual patients.

National Excellence Program
• Innovations in breast cancer care
The ultimate goal of the project is to develop and implement a precision medicine model for the treatment of breast cancer by harmonizing surgery, radiotherapy, medical oncology, imaging, molecular diagnostics and basic research endeavors.

Wide scale of platforms to bridge clinical and basic research activities
o Seminar series
o Conferences
o Journal clubs
• Increasing number of collaborative projects and publications
o For example: Development of novel functional proteomics techniques to study resistance mechanisms for targeted therapies

Epidemiological Research

• Risk estimation of smoking and drinking patients
• Hereditary risk of cancer in breast, ovarian, colon and prostate cancer patients
• Identification of gene polymorphisms in breast, colorectal, head and neck and prostate cancers

Research Infrastructure at the National Institute of Oncology

• Designated Research Buildings
• Core Facilities
o Next Generation Sequencing:
 Roche FLX Genome Sequencer System, Illumina MiSeq System,
o Mass spectrometry: Thermo Orbitrap Fusion and LTQ XL mass spects
o Confocal microscope: NIKON Eclipse 80i C1 confocal microscope
o Flow cytometer: Beckman Coulter Cell Lab Quanta SC.
o DNA chip and high throughput protein expression profile analyzer
o Research Support Services
o Biobank (new centralized system development nearly finished)
o Animal House at Special Pathogen Free level:
 3000 live animal
• 5000 used annually
• 1/3 of the animals are immune suppressed
• Over 50 different tumor cell lines with 6-8 different inoculation sites
o Mechanical and electronics facility
o Isotope laboratory
o Research supplies warehouse
o Designated unit at the finances department

Research Output at the National Institute of Oncology

The number of annually published peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters is >125 with a cumulative annual impact factor of > 600 in 2017 and 2018.