Dr. Michael Bockmayr receives the Dr. Martini Price 2023

For 140 years, Germany's oldest medical award, the Dr. Erich Martini Price, has honoured significant medical research achievements. On Monday, Science Senator and Second Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg Katharina Fegebank and Prof. Dr. Ansgar W. Lohse, Chairman of the Dr. Martini Foundation Board and Director of the I. Medical Clinic and Polyclinic of the UKE, presented the awards to five UKE scientists. Dr. Michael Bockmayr, clinician-scientist in the research group of Professor Dr. Ulrich Schüller, received the second price for his risk evaluation of spinal cord tumours using bioinformatic methods.

Prognosis of ependymomas – Identifying patterns of recurrence

Myxopapillary ependymomas (MPE) are rare tumours of the spinal cord, whichoccur in all age groups. Until now, they were considered to be rather benign, but recurrences occur frequently, especially in younger patients. Dr. Michael Bockmayr was able to divide the tumours into two main subtypes - MPE-A and MPE-B - with molecular data profiling and bioinformatical methods. He found that 85 percent of patients with MPE-A tumours had a recurrence within ten years, while this was the case in only 33 percent of patients with MPE-B tumours. "These findings make it possible for the first time to robustly identify patients with an increased risk of recurrence, for which anappropriate follow-up care should be provided," explains Dr. Michael Bockmayr.  "The results show that for certain tumours, concomitant radiation or chemotherapy could be useful. We hope that our results can helpto improve the treatment success in the long term through risk-adapted therapeutic decisions".

Foto: UKE/Kirchhof