The Translational Surgical Oncology (TCO ) research focus deals with the cellular, molecular and epidemiological properties of gastrointestinal tumours and retroperitoneal soft tissue sarcomas. The overriding aim is to gradually transfer findings from basic biomedical research to clinical applications in surgical oncology.

The scientific focus is on research into molecular signalling cascades in the development and spread of gastrointestinal carcinomas and retroperitoneal sarcomas, the identification of specific biomarkers, the investigation of molecular and epidemiological influences on the effectiveness of multimodal cancer therapies and research into regeneration processes following oncological operations on the gastrointestinal tract.

To this end, the TCO research area currently brings together five working groups: the Epidemiology of Colorectal Carcinoma Working Group, the Inflammatory Signal Transduction in Gastric and Oesophageal Carcinoma Working Group, the Proteostasis of the Endoplasmic Reticulum Working Group, the Translational Surgical Oncology Working Group and the Wound Healing and Regeneration Working Group.

For 15 years, the TCO research focus has maintained an extensive and continuously expanded biodatabase of surgical resection specimens in addition to liquid biopsies of colorectal primary tumours, colorectal liver and peritoneal metastases, carcinomas of the upper gastrointestinal tract and abdominal soft tissue sarcomas. In combination with continuously and prospectively collected clinical data, this tissue database provides an ideal basis for genomic and transcriptomic analyses in the sense of personalised, translational oncological research.

In addition to numerous national and international collaborations, there is close clinical and scientific networking with other key research areas within the ResSurge research unit as well as with translational working groups at the National Centre for Tumour Diseases (NCT) and the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg.