For almost eight months now, Carlos Huesa has been working with a team of researchers on a new treatment to cure liver cancer. He is doing so from his office in Boston (Massachusetts), in a postdoctoral work that he is carrying out thanks to a grant from Harvard University and which he combines with his work as a teacher. The opportunity arose shortly after completing his doctorate at the University of Navarra. "We are trying to develop a tool that can help in the treatment of liver cancer; it consists of a catheter that is injected through the hepatic artery to reach the tumour in the liver. It emits microspheres that have radiation and try to reach the tumour and annihilate it," explains Carlos, who a few days ago shared a live chat with presenter Mónica López on the programme 'Mijas Hoy'.
"The idea," he continues, "is to try to localise the radiation as much as possible in the tumour, without affecting the rest of the tissue" which is very sensitive to radiosensitivity. The solution he and his team are developing tries to predict the trajectory of the microspheres along the vascular tree of the liver, "so that we can provide doctors with the most precise information possible".
Carlos Huesa was born and raised in Mijas, studied at the university in Malaga and later obtained his doctorate at the University of Navarra. Huesa says he is very proud to be able to do his bit for the cure of this disease. In fact, the preliminary results of his research have been awarded by the American Association of Medical Physicists. "I received the notification that it had been awarded, which made me very happy, and at the end of July we will go to Houston, where it will be quite hot, almost as hot as in Mijas, and we will have to present the results of what I am doing and where the research is going", explains the engineer.
The post-doctorate that this Mijeño is doing in the United States lasts two years. Luckily, his wife is accompanying him on this adventure and he says he feels "very lucky, because I always meet many good people along the way who help and support me". Even so, he says he misses the town where he grew up, his family and friends, to whom he says he owes the little push he needed to decide to go into the field of physics, mathematics and medicine. "I remember that when I was about to finish high school, I didn't really know what to do and I had a conversation with my father that left its mark on me. I could see that doing engineering was very difficult, but my parents insisted that I should do what I liked and then we would see". For him, he says, family is everything. "In Mijas, I have many family and sentimental ties, I keep it very close to my heart and I am very proud of my land", he says, adding that, in the end, "in time you get used to it, but what I miss the most is the food. Right now I would eat an espeto and a stew made by my mother, that's for sure".
And perhaps it will be next Christmas when he will be able to fulfil his wish, as he has already scheduled his return for December. From Mijas Comunicación, we wish him a lot of professional success.
