Elin Hardells thesis regarding uterine sarcomas gets award for best thesis 2020
Congratulations to Elin Hardell at the department of Oncology-Pathology who gets award for best thesis 2020 from Swedish society of pathology!
What is the main focus of your thesis?
The focus of thesis is uterine sarcomas, a group of rare malignant tumors. In three of the articles in the thesis, we have studied a special type of uterine sarcomas called undifferentiated uterine sarcomas. Previously, we had very little knowledge about the biology of undifferentiated uterine sarcomas, and it was thought that all patients had a very poor prognosis with survival less than 2 years.
Which are the most important results?
We could show that some patients with undifferentiated uterine sarcomas survive longer and that the amount of mitoses at the histological examination could be used as a prognostic marker. In another study we used gene expression analysis to identify molecular subgroups within undifferentiated uterine sarcomas. Four tumor groups with different biology and different prognosis could be identified.
How can this new knowledge contribute to the improvement of people’s health?
Hopefully an increased knowledge of uterine sarcomas can lead to new, better treatment options in the future, so that the prognosis for the patients can be improved.
What's in the future for you? Will you keep on conducting research?
After my defense I have changed research group and now belong to Johan Hartman’s group at the department of Oncology-Pathology. I also continue to work as a physician at the unit of clinical pathology and cancer diagnostics.