Elias Campo received his MD and PhD degrees from the Medical School at the University of Barcelona. He was a post-doctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD. He is currently Professor of Pathology and Chief of the Hematopathology Unit at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, University of Barcelona. His research is focused on the pathological characterization of lymphoid neoplasms and the study of molecular mechanisms involved in the development and progression of these tumors with particular interest in the translation of this knowledge into the clinical practice. He has been member at large of the Executive Committees of the Society of Hematopathology and European Association for Haematopathology in which he served as President (2012-2014). He has also been the Co-director of the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Genome Project in the International Consortium of the Cancer Genome. He is co-editor of 2 books (WHO classification of Hematological neoplasms and Haematopathology) and has published a number of articles in the field of lymphoid neoplasms.

He is going to talk about Clinical impact of genomic studies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia in Oncobell Symposium 2018. We have interviewed him to learn more about his research and lecture:

*   In which research programs are you participating?

Our groups is interested in the analysis of the genetic and molecular alterations involved in the development and progression of human lymphoid neoplasms, a very heterogeneous groups of tumors with a broad spectrum of clinical presentations, evolution and response  to current therapies

*   Which are the goals of your research?

Our main goals are to understand the pathogenesis of these tumors and find ways to improve their diagnosis and therapy.  

*   Which are the next steps you are going to follow in a short term basis?

 We are interested in define the large scale genomic and epigenomic alterations of these tumors and how they dictate the clinical evolution. We are analyzing the subclonal architectural composition and how it may influence the evolution of the tumors 

 *   What are you going to talk about in the Oncobell symposium?

I will present our recent studies on the genomic/epigenomic alterations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia with emphasis on how this knowledge is changing the clinical view of the disease 

*   Why you consider that is important to talk about this subject?

 In the last 10 years large scale genomic studies of different types of human cancers have disclosed the tremendous complexity of alterations in individual tumors and across patients. It is now time to understand the clinical impact of all these alterations at the moment of diagnosis and in the evolution of the disease, particularly how they may influence the response to therapy

*   Give us an advice as an oncology specialist.

All professional facing the challenge of cancer, from basic scientist to pathologists, bioinformatics, and clinical oncologists, we need to work very close together to understand the tremendous complexity of this disease.