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An epidemiologist from Reguera by adoption and from Miranda in the heart of Adonina Tardon, the first female professor of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Oviedo and the most eminent Asturian scientist in Spain, according to the ranking of the Higher Center for Scientific Research in 2022, was named “Asturian of the Month” in May by LA NUEVA ESPAÑA for her tireless work in the field of environmental epidemiology and preventive medicine, as well as for her outstanding experience. It has a long history in public health. This is evidenced by a recent grant from a major European-funded project to eradicate Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a small but persistent bacterium that is a major risk factor for stomach cancer.
Stomach cancer causes more than a million deaths worldwide each year, and 90 percent of these tumors are secondary to infection with H. pylori, a bacterium that was declared a type I carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1994. Stomach cancer in Asturias is more common in men, ranking fifth in incidence and fourth in mortality in the region.
Tardon is the Principal Investigator in Spain of the Horizon Europe Mission Cancer-funded Cancer Prevention at Work project, which will be implemented in several countries chosen precisely because they have a high prevalence of H. pylori and a high incidence and mortality from gastric cancer. Participating in Asturias are the Institute for Medical Research of the Principality of Asturias (ISPA), the University of Oviedo, SESPA Region III, Quirón Prevention and the Spanish Cancer Association.
Local and global problem
According to WHO, the eradication of Helicobacter Pylori infection is a local and global challenge, and to this end, this project has been launched, which will be carried out simultaneously in Bologna (Italy) and Timisoara (Romania) under the leadership of ISPA Adonina Tardon. The first phase in Asturias is expected to recruit, participate, screen, treat positive workers and eradicate infection from approximately 1,000 workers and their families in Asturian Health Zone III. Through this action, the researcher explains, we have the opportunity to interrupt the circulation of H. pylori infection, with a beneficial effect on the health of the population, their families and, in the long term, new generations.
Tardon has extensive experience teaching at universities. More than 20 doctoral dissertations have been defended under his supervision. She was Scientific Secretary of the University Institute of Oncology, IUOPA, University of Oviedo during its establishment, from 2000 to 2016. Since 2000, she has directed the Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology Group of the University Institute of Oncology, IUOPA, Cyber Epidemiology and Public Health, since 2007, and the Asturian Health Research Institute (ISPA) since 2016.
Thirty years of experience
An expert in environmental and occupational epidemiology, Tardon has over 30 years of research experience in the environmental epidemiology of cancer. It is a member of a large network of international collaborations in the field of cancer prevention and control.
He has published 403 scientific articles in JCR journals with index H 61 and has been cited 12,598 times. She is the most productive researcher at the University of Oviedo in the thematic area “public, environmental and occupational health”.
Also, in the same category, it ranks 17th in terms of performance in Spain.
She has led over twenty national and international research projects and has signed ten research contracts with companies, currently serving as Principal Investigator in Asturias of the ORCHESTRA project, Horizon 2020 on covid19. He is a member of the Research Ethics Committee of the Principality of Asturias, the Health Council of Asturias, Chairman of Cogersa and Chairman of the Concepción Arenal Agenda 2030 at the University of Oviedo.
With a degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Complutense University of Madrid, specializing in Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and a PhD from the University of Oviedo, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the WHO International Center for Cancer Research, located in Lyon, which she says marked her international scientific life. In addition, at various stages she was a visiting scientist at the National Cancer Institute in Washington (USA).
Great defender of public health as an “art” that protects and educates.
Tardon has always argued that public health is “the most beautiful art” because it is about protecting and promoting health, raising the level of health education of the population, and equally necessary for assessing the quality of medical care and health management planning. Her scientific activity has been devoted to research in the field of occupational and environmental epidemiology of cancer, especially cancer of the lung, bladder, colon or breast cancer, as the principal investigator of the CAPUA (lung cancer in Asturias) studies, the epidemiology of bladder, colon, breast and prostate cancer, as well as research in the field of environmental epidemiology to study the impact of environmental pollution on the health of children. in a cohort of newborns from Asturias. This cohort is part of the INMA project and aims to assess the impact of environmental pollution on the growth and development of children.
