Investigators from Brazil and France advance their cooperation for research on women’s health

Posted May 27, 2019

Cooperation involved activities carried out from March to May and should result in articles providing new evidence on breast cancer associated with endocrine conditions and vascular health related to hormone replacement.

An initiative for international cooperation in research, developed between the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and Paris Descartes University, in France, seeks to produce evidence on two topics related to women’s health. One of the studies evaluates risk factors for breast cancer in association with different endocrine conditions such as obesity, anovulation, and excess androgens. The other study examines the arterial and venous vascular risk of different options for menopausal hormone therapy.

“The French group has developed internationally recognized clinical and in vitro models for the study of human mammary physiology, pathophysiology, and molecular mechanisms of breast cancer. France also has solid experience in the non-oral use of estradiol and different types of progestogens. The data are now being analyzed for future joint publications in this field,” says UFRGS Professor Poli Mara Spritzer (photo above), coordinator of INCT Hormona and of the Gynecological Endocrinology Unit at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre.  

The Brazilian researcher was in France from March to early May, where she worked in the development of academic activities with the residents at Port Royal Hospital, in Paris, and of research activities in collaboration with researchers Geneviève Plu-Bureau and Anne Gompel (photos below, respectively), lead investigators in the fields of Medical Gynecology and Human Reproduction in the Endocrine Gynecology Unit at that institution. According to Poli Mara, the participation of INCT Hormona in this act of cooperation contributes to the internationalization of research that has been conducted on different endocrine conditions in women in Brazil.

Text and editing: Luiz Sérgio Dibe
Photo credit: from Poli Mara Spritzer’s professional collection