When William Garcia had to choose a specialty, it was clear that he wanted to orient himself towards pathologies that required more attention and after studying Medicine he opted for hepatology. “Hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) is one of the few types of cancer whose prevalence continues to increase in Western countries. Those that are detected early have a good prognosis but better solutions must be sought for those that are in advanced stages..Current treatments are good, but they have room for improvement”, explains García, who studied medicine in Mexico, his native country, and came to Pamplona to study the specialty of Pathological anatomy at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra (CUN).
Now, thanks to a scholarship from the College of Physicians, he is going to stay in the Department of Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital Cellular Pathology, a center “of recognized international prestige in hepatopathology and transplant pathology”. There, he will learn to develop innovative research methodologies, such as imaging techniques based on mass cytometry, “focusing them particularly on the study of the tumor microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinoma and its relationship with the response of these patients to immunotherapy”, he qualifies.
His stay in Birmingham, García points out, will facilitate “advances in lines of hepatocarcinoma research that are currently being developed at the CUN and at the Cima y will contribute to strengthening “a collaboration network for the development of multi-centre projects that will benefit patients from Navarre”.
Diagnosis of transplants
Other objectives that the winner of the MIR 2022 Scholarship sets are delve into the study and diagnosis of transplant pathologywith a special interest in the diagnosis and pathophysiology of cellular and humoral rejection, and knowing and learning new artificial intelligence tools (machine learning), applying them in the field of hepatopathology.
García explains that the center chosen for his stay “has a long tradition in hepatopathology and transplant pathologyled for many years by Professor Stefan Hübscher, whose healthcare and research work, as well as his collaboration and membership in internationally renowned Liver Pathology groups, have laid the foundations of the current team led by Dr. Rachel Brown”.