Vladan Čokić, Head of the Group for Molecular Oncology at the Institute for Medical Research, delivered a lecture as part of the Scientific Seminar series titled “Etiology of Thrombosis in Hematologic Patients.” In his presentation, Dr. Čokić shared the latest findings from the EPOCHAL project, for which he serves as coordinator.
EPOCHAL is a multidisciplinary project focused on developing innovative therapeutic protocols for the safe prevention of cancer-associated thrombosis in patients with hematologic malignancies. The project also aims to identify specific biomarkers across different types of malignancies, which will be used as predictors for thrombosis risk in the future.
“We examined inflammatory factors that pose a risk for thrombosis, specifically studying lymphomas, multiple myeloma, acute myeloid leukemia, and patients who developed graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation,” highlighted Dr. Čokić.
The research has shown elevated inflammatory factors in these patients, and according to Dr. Čokić, “There is a higher occurrence of inflammatory factors in patients already diagnosed with thrombosis compared to those without.”
In addition to clinical patient monitoring, the EPOCHAL project, supported by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia (IDEJE program 2022–2025), includes extensive preclinical studies utilizing in vitro cell cultures, in vivo mouse models, and in silico profiling.
