Cancer research represents one of three strategic research programs at the Gade institute.

The knowledge of pathology in addition to the biobanks at the Section for Patology are important assets and the basis for research into melanomas, breast cancer, pancreas cancer, gynecological cancer, brain cancer, pancreas cancer, kidney cancer and lymphomas. Statistical analysis of clinico-pathological and molecular variables in relation to prognosis and prediction of treatment response has a strong tradition at the Gade institute.

Angiogenesis – the formation of new blood or lymphatic vessels – in cancer is an important  research focus and includes international collaboration and clinical trials of angiogenesis inhibitors.

Research on  bone marrow stem cells and biological rhythms and relevance for leukemia has a long experimental tradition. Several in vitro culture models are in use. Cancer invasion is studied in brain cancer and gastrointestinal cancer.

A unique in vitro model of oral mucosa has been established and is used for experimental research into basic mechanism of carcinogenesis, such as epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and drug testing.

The relationship between virus and cancer is studied in order to understand basic mechanisms and regulatory networks in cancer. The Gade institute is involved in research on vaccines against human papillomaviruses related to cervical neoplasia.

One research focus is the generation of optimal populations of dendritic cells for therapeutic vaccines against cancer.

The established methodology platform includes basic pathology and tumor morphology (human, animals), cell sorting and flow cytometry, laser microdissection and capture, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, gene technology, techniques of molecular biology and immunology, biostatistics, bioinformatics and functional genomics such as gene expression and promoter microarrays, proteomics and tissue microarrays.