Tania Fleitas Kanonnikoff, is an oncologist and Joan Rodés researcher at Hospital Clínico University of Valencia-INCLIVA. She leads her own research group focused on the impact of the tumor immune microenvironment on the therapeutic responses of gastro-esophageal tumors.
This group arises from the " Colorectal cancer and new therapeutic developments in solid tumors research group” led by Prof. Andrés Cervantes.
She was trained as a medical doctor in the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the National University of Asunción, being first of her promotion. After that she was trained at the La Fe Polytechnic University Hospital in Valencia as a Medical Oncologist. She presented her doctoral thesis at t Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) with honours in November 2011, focused on biomarkers of angiogenesis in lung cancer, work that was carried out within the framework of a predoctoral research grant from Bancaja and with a contract between the Thrombosis research group and Hemostasis of the Hospital La Fe and the UAB.
She later joined the group of Dr. Andrés Cervantes at the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia in 2011, first carrying out clinical work of patients with digestive tumors and later as a Rio postdoctoral researcher in clinical trials development and also she had gained experience in translational research by participating in projects focused on the study of the genomics of gastric cancer and other solid tumors.
In 2015-2016 Tania Fleitas completed a one-year postdoctoral stay at the DFCI thanks to a scholarship of the AECC and the SEOM. After this fellowship, she continue her research career as a Joan Rodes researcher ( 2018-2022), and as Clinical Senior researcher ( AECC grant) 2022-2023. She is an active member of the ethics committee of the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia. Active member of the ESMO GI Faculty group, the EORTC Upper GI Task force, and from the Publishing ESMO group.
She is an active evaluator of european proposals for Horizon Europe and for the National Science evaluation programme in Spain.
She currently combines her work as an emerging researcher leading her own group, along with her clinical work. She is co-director of two thesis projects doctoral programs focused on the study of the immune microenvironment of Gastric Cancer, both of them planned to be read in the early 2024.She also actively train medical students and residents.
Regarding her leadership in international and national Projects, she has worked as principal investigator in an international project financed by CONACYT (Paraguay), with the participation of the Hospital de Clínicas, Incan, HCUV and 2 companies dedicated to the development of the Electronic Medical Record, as well as another project focused in the study of the molecular biology of solid tumors in Paraguayan patients . She is IP of 2 projects financed by the Carlos III Institute, the Project FIS TFK-2018-01 focused on the study of the immune microenvironment of gastric cancer financed by the SNS, Carlos III for PIS, and the PI21/00693 project that started in 2022 focused on the search for biomarkers for immunotherapy. She is also the scientific coordinator of the project entitled “CELAC and European consortium for a personalized medicine approach for gastric cancer (LEGACy) " with European funding of almost 4 million euros as well as PI and coordinator of the AIDA Project "An Artificially Intelligent Diagnostic Assistant for gastric inflammation" (AIDA, Horizon Europe, 2023-2026, PN 101095359), a consortium composed of 15 partners and focused on the study of preneoplastic lesions of gastric cancer, as well as on the integration of artificial intelligence algorithms to identify individuals at risk and improve prevention strategies. Dr. Fleitas endorses her leadership capacity in complex projects with the ones above mentioned plus, those recently privately funded where she also participates as coordinator and PI, such as "Prognostic and predictive value of response of the gastric cancer microenvironment in young people. VERO Project" awarded by the Spanish Multidisciplinary Group on Digestive Cancer (GEMCAD, 2022-2024), and a Gilead Grant and to the study of resistance mechanisms in patients with Her2-positive gastric tumors, thanks to a grant from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM, 2019-2022) and recently a grant from Mutua Madrileña for the project "Immunotherapy in gastroesophageal cancer. Towards a new therapeutic strategy through the inhibition of HCK and/or FGR proteins involved in the attenuation of the immune response" (2023-2025).
The results of these projects have been presented in high impact journals and National and International Congresses, as well as to the society. Specific educational talks to the general population and patients have been done during Dr. Fleitas career across the different projects.
Tania Fleitas Kanonnikoff has published articles as first author, contributor, and lead author in top-quartile journals and has presented her work at prestigious national and international conferences.
She also demonstrates her collaboration as principal investigator and co- investigator in several projects, consecutively leading 2 projects financed by the Carlos III Institute and a project financed by a European grant from the H2020 program and 2 national projects financed with private funds from cooperative groups.
Her publications, conference presentations and outreach sessions for the general population show her leadership as a translational researcher in gastric cancer.
The web of science citation indicators are H-index 15, with a total of 42 publications with a total of 901 citations, with an average citation per article of 21.45 and an H-index of 16. 30% of the articles were published as corresponding author, last or first author.