© CRTOH/UNIGE. Lung squamous cell carcinoma imaged with the 10X Xenium Analyzer. Cell coloring is based similar RNA profiles. Tumor cells are colored pink and red, Immune cells are colored yellow, brown, green and blue. Stromal cells are coloured turquoise. 

Cancer affects one in two men and one in three women over the course of their lives. While major advances in detection, management, and treatment have considerably improved patients’ quality of life over recent decades, the challenge remains immense: nearly 20 million people receive a cancer diagnosis worldwide each year, and nearly 10 million die from it. To address this major public health challenge, the Faculty of Medicine, the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), and a consortium of foundations established the CRTOH in 2017, with the aim of achieving discoveries from which patients can rapidly benefit. Today, the centre brings together more than 300 researchers working on key areas such as the tumour microenvironment, precision oncology, cell division, and anticancer pharmacology.

Coordinated by Professors Mikaël Pittet and Olivier Michielin, the centre draws its strength from its close ties with clinical practice: the teams work directly with biological samples from patients treated at the HUG, enabling laboratory hypotheses to be validated on human material and, in return, shedding light on clinical observations. This ongoing dialogue is at the heart of translational research: bridging the often-considerable gap between a fundamental discovery and its transformation into an effective treatment.

A digital infrastructure to support personalised oncology

Today, therapeutic choices are still often driven by the tumour’s organ of origin. Yet the effectiveness of a treatment can vary considerably among people with the “same” cancer. Personalised oncology aims to move beyond this paradigm: therapeutic decisions are now based on the full set of cellular and molecular characteristics specific to each tumour, rather than on its location alone. But this complexity must first be deciphered. New analytical methods – such as single-cell sequencing or spatial tumour imaging – now make it possible to explore this diversity in all details and to better anticipate tumour progression and response to treatments.

“This is the very purpose of the new digital infrastructure we recently put in place”, says Mikaël Pittet. “It makes it possible to bring together, within a single analytical framework, the biological data from tumour tissues and the clinical data of patients. Combined with artificial intelligence algorithms, this platform will not only help accelerate research, but also provide, via the HUG’s Molecular Tumour Board, a personalised analysis for each patient. The aim is to better anticipate the progression of each tumour, predict its response to treatments, and inform truly individualised therapeutic decisions.”

The HUG’s pathology department, a central player in this system, generates nearly 10,000 digitised sections per week. “Precision oncology means integrating multiomic data to determine the most appropriate treatment for each patient. We are on the cusp of a true medical revolution, which will enable the right drug to be given to the right person at the right time”, says Olivier Michielin.

GTO: the driving force of translational research

At the heart of the CRTOH’s strategy, the GTO (Geneva Translational Oncology) programme supports ambitious projects led by tandems pairing clinicians with basic researchers, with a funding up to 300’000 Swiss francs per year for three years.  In 2024, four projects were selected, focusing on the circadian interactions of immune cells in tumours, the identification of predictive biomarkers for ovarian cancer, the metabolic mapping of cerebral lymphomas, and drug screening on tumoroids. The 2025 call confirms this momentum, with four new projects dedicated to the role of lymphatic endothelial cells in CAR-T therapy, the development of a multimodal strategy against glioblastoma, the analysis of pro-metastatic mechanisms in rectal cancer, and the immunogenic remodelling of the tumour microenvironment. All these projects rely on human biological material collected at the HUG and involve extensively the Clinical Pathology Department.

“The challenges remain considerable – treatment resistance, tumour heterogeneity, side effects – but in just a few years, the CRTOH has created a true continuum between laboratory discovery and clinical implementation, a model that attracts international talent and generates interest from industrial partners”, adds Olivier Michielin.

FLASH radiotherapy: irradiating in a flash to protect healthy tissue

Among the major therapeutic advances supported by the CRTOH, FLASH radiotherapy opens a radically new avenue: by delivering the radiation dose in a fraction of a second – more than a hundred times faster than conventional methods – it can effectively destroy tumours whilst significantly reducing damage to healthy tissue. Conventional radiotherapy remains a cornerstone of cancer treatment, but its side effects still limit the doses that can be administered. 

In 2025, Professors Marie-Catherine Vozenin and Pelagia Tsoutsou founded the first Geneva laboratory dedicated to innovation in radiobiology applied to radio-oncology (LiRR). Their team has demonstrated the effectiveness of the FLASH technique in various organs and models, and is now developing approaches using protons and very high energy electrons (VHEE), in collaboration with PSI and CERN, as well as a centre of expertise dedicated to conformational X-rays. The aim is to facilitate the transfer of this innovation into clinical practice, particularly for rare paediatric brain tumours, where therapeutic needs remain especially urgent.

Latest news from the CRTOH : science in motion!

Immune hijacking: when defenders become tumour allies

Published in Cancer Cell in February 2026, a study by Mikaël Pittet’s team reveals that neutrophils – normally on the front line in fighting infections – can be hijacked by tumours. These “hijacked” cells then produce the chemokine CCL3, which promotes cancer growth. Blocking this reprogramming represents a promising therapeutic avenue.

Immune centres with a dual face

Another study conducted by Mikaël Pittet’s team (Immunity, December 2025) reveals that certain tumours locally organise genuine, highly structured “immune centres”. Depending on how they function, these niches can either stimulate an effective anti-cancer response or, conversely, deactivate the body’s defences and promote tumour escape.  

CAR-T cells against glioblastoma

With a five-year survival rate of less than 5%, glioblastoma remains one of the most devastating cancers, resistant to all current immunotherapies. Denis Migliorini’s and Valérie Dutoit’s team has developed CAR-T cells capable of targeting the Tenascin-C protein, present in the tumour matrix. Published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (November 2025), these results pave the way for a clinical trial planned in Geneva and Lausanne within a year – a first in Switzerland.

Liver cancer: immunotherapy before surgery

A study conducted by Stéphanie Lacotte and Christian Toso (Hepatology, October 2025) demonstrates that checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies are significantly more effective when administered before surgery. Used as neoadjuvant treatment – given prior to the operation to weaken the tumour and prepare the therapeutic ground – this type of approach reduces tumour mass and significantly lowers the risk of recurrence.

Chronotherapy: treating at the right time to change the prognosis

An international phase 3 trial conducted by Central South University of Hunan, UNIGE (team of Christoph Scheiermann), and the University of Paris-Saclay, published in Nature Medicine (February 2026), shows that the effectiveness of immuno-chemotherapy against lung cancer depends strongly on the time of day at which it is administered. Patients treated before 3 pm showed slower disease progression and significantly better survival than those treated later in the day. This study directly extends the experimental work of Christoph Scheiermann’s team on the importance of the circadian cycle on the immune system and cancer, published in Nature in 2023 and in Cell in 2024, illustrating the impact of translational research carried out at the CRTOH. Remarkably, the application of this approach would not require new treatments, but would principally involve adapting care schedules, with potential for rapid deployment for patients.

Testing future anticancer treatments

Overcoming treatment resistance is one of the major challenges in the fight against cancer. To better anticipate the effects of new therapies, Patrycja Nowak-Sliwinska and her team have developed a platform capable of modelling in vitro the kidney, liver, and heart – three organs particularly sensitive to combined anticancer treatments. This approach, which is rapid and does not involve animal models, paves the way for safer evaluation of new treatments (Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, December 2025).

Olivier MICHIELIN

Full Professor
Department of Medicine
Vice-Coordinator, CRTOH
Faculty of Medicine, UNIGE
Director, Department of Oncology, HUG
Head, Division of Precision Oncology, HUG

 

 

Mikaël PITTET

Full Professor
ISREC Foundation Chair in Immuno-Oncology
Department of Pathology and Immunology
Coordinator, CRTOH
Faculty of Medicine, UNIGE
Lausanne Branch - Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research