Airc Campaign

From laboratories to town squares: the fight against cancer needs everyone’s support

On Saturday, thousands of volunteers will be handing out ‘Research Chocolates’: today, around one in two patients recovers, and the mortality rate has fallen by 9 per cent over the last ten years

by Francesca Cerati

6 November 2026

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3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The AIRC Foundation for Cancer Research currently has over 770 cancer research projects underway in Italian laboratories, and to ensure their continuity, the Foundation relies on a simple gesture. On Saturday 7 November, around 2,500 squares across Italia will host volunteers distributing ‘Research Chocolates’, available in exchange for a minimum donation of 15 euros. Along with the chocolates, a guide will also be handed out explaining how research begins and how we progress from discovery to a cure.

The figures

The campaign also provides an opportunity to take stock of a disease that affects a great many people. According to the figures from ‘Cancer in Italia’, compiled by Aiom, Airtum and other partners, there are 390,100 new diagnoses in Italia each year: 214,500 among men and 175,600 among women. The most common cancer is breast cancer, which alone accounts for 13.8 per cent of all diagnoses. This is followed by colorectal cancer (12.5 per cent), lung cancer (11.5 per cent), prostate cancer (10.3 per cent) and bladder cancer (7.9 per cent).

The most important fact is that today around half of all patients make a full recovery. The five-year survival rate following diagnosis is 65 per cent for women and 59.4 per cent for men. For certain types of cancer, Italia exceeds the European average: 89.5 per cent for breast cancer and 67 per cent for colorectal cancer. There are currently over 3.7 million people living in Italia who have previously been diagnosed with cancer, representing 6.2 per cent of the population. Over the last ten years, mortality has fallen by an average of 9 per cent.

Prevention still matters. Smoking is responsible for around 85–90 per cent of lung cancer cases. It is also linked to many other cancers, ranging from the mouth to the pancreas, and from the bladder to the kidney.

The faces of research

Behind these figures are the approximately 5,000 researchers supported by AIRC, which has been investing in independent cancer research since 1965, totalling 2.7 billion euros to date. This year’s campaign, ‘The cure is called research’, is dedicated to the Foundation’s entire community and puts a face to them too. One such person is Lorenzo D’Ambrosio, associate professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Turin. As an AIRC Next Gen Clinician Scientist 2025, he is studying leiomyosarcoma, a rare and complex sarcoma. His project aims to understand how the tumour repairs DNA damage and how it interacts with the immune system. The aim is to find vulnerabilities that can be exploited with new combination therapies. ‘I have realised that it is only through continuous research that we can offer the best treatments to our patients,’ he says.

A recent example of how basic research can open up new avenues comes from the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan. A team from the Department of Experimental Oncology, led by Luca Mazzarella, has discovered a previously unknown function of NF1, a gene that has been recognised for years as a tumour suppressor. The study, supported by the AIRC Foundation and the Ministry of Health, has been published in *Nature Cancer*.

It all began with an observation that is difficult to explain. In HER2-positive breast cancers, which affect around 20 per cent of patients, the NF1 gene was found to be mutated much more frequently in metastatic stages. When this gene is altered, the tumours tend to be resistant to most targeted therapies. Yet one treatment, T-DM1 (trastuzumab emtansine), worked better precisely in cells carrying the mutation. The drug is the forerunner of antibody-drug conjugates, known as ADCs. It acts like a ‘Trojan horse’: the antibody recognises the cancer cells and delivers a chemotherapeutic agent into them that destroys the microtubules, structures essential for cell division.

A possible explanation

After years of working with European and US groups, the team has found the explanation. “For the first time, we have shown that the protein produced by the Nf1 gene, neurofibromin, physically binds to microtubules and promotes their repair,” explains Eleonora Messuti, the article’s first co-author. Bruno Duso, the other first co-author, adds: “When Nf1 is mutated, the repair process becomes inefficient and the drug is able to destroy the microtubules more effectively.”

The implications are significant. Until now, it was thought that the efficacy of ADCs depended primarily on the levels of the target receptor, the ‘entry point’. The study shows that factors within the cell also play a role. ‘It is highly likely that other genes may play a similar role,’ emphasises Mazzarella. NF1 mutations can be easily identified through DNA sequencing. If the ongoing clinical trials confirm these findings, it will be possible to select more precisely the patients in whom T-DM1 will work best.