The "Associazione Marta Nurizzo" born on July 11, 1996, takes its name after Marta, died on May 11, 1995 at the age of 21, owing to a bronchial-alveolar carcinoma.
The Association is a no-profit organization, recognized by the Italian Ministry for University and Scientific Research, aiming at promoting the research on lung cancer. It collects funds from supporters, private people and companies to grant research projects and fellowships in this field; promotional and cultural events are also organized for fund raising.

  • The first fellowship (1997) of ITL 18.000.000 - approximately 9,250 € - was assigned to dr. Antonella Colasante of Chieti University, at that moment in charge at the "Mario Negri Sud" Scientific Center. Her Research Project "Transforming Growth Factors Beta1 receptors in human lung carcinomas" was carried out at the Molecular Medicine Laboratory (dr. Di Giovine), Sheffield University (U.K.). A scientific seminar on the subject was held (March, 1997) in Brugherio (MI).
    The results of the research carried out were published in Cytokine [AM1] (May 2003).
  • The second fellowship (1998) of the same amount was assigned to dr. Francesca Crosti, at that moment in charge at the Milan "Ospedale Maggiore". Her research project "Genetic susceptibility and environmental carcinogens in lung cancer", started at the Nelson Institute of Epidemiological Medicine (dr. Garte), New York Medical Center, New York University, USA. The Association’s Scientific Committee, after the first quarterly check, suggested stopping the project since the local situation appeared not to be worth for the fellow. The Steering Council of the Association, in accordance with dr. Crosti, decided with regret to break up this experience.

 

From the beginning of the New Millenium, the Association has focused its main activity on the research project "Genetic predisposition to lung cancer", currently developed together with the "Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori", Milano (Italian National Cancer Institute, Milan) and the "Istituto di Ricerca Farmacologica Mario Negri", Milano (“Mario Negri” Pharmacological Research Institute, Milan). The research is aimed at investigating the genetic elements affecting lung cancer risk: the main target is therefore to collect the largest possible number of blood samples coming from patients under 60 who never smoked and, possibly, from their healthy relatives (brothers or sisters or parents). Till now, more than 180 patients’ samples and more than 140 control samples were collected and analyzed. A preliminary study on metabolic polymorphisms CYP1A1, GSTM1, and GSTT1 has been carried out and its results were published on Mutation Research [AM2], Dec. 2005. An additional study on a candidate novel tumor suppressor gene (TRIT1) was presented at the AACR Special Conference Molecular Pathogenesis of Lung Cancer: Opportunities for Translation to the Clinic, San Diego, February, 2005 and, more recently, two further articles appeared in the Journal of Clinical Oncology [AM3] (Apr. 2006) and in Carcinogenesis [AM4](Feb. 2007, EPub ahead of print).

A call for fellowship (18,000 €) was recently closed and the Scientific Committee chose the project of dr. Silvia La Monica on the resistance to EGFR inhibitors. The Associazione Marta Nurizzo could also finance an extra grant (up 5,000 €) to promote study stages or other scientific activities, related to the research program, abroad.

The Association looks for any fruitful cooperation with international scientific centers involved in lung cancer theoretic and applied research and interested in collaborating with the fellowship winners to develop their projects.

The Association engages to spread the results on the Association website http://www.martalive.org. Please let us know your opinion on our commitment. Any suggestion would be very much appreciated. Thank you.