Editorial
Our Translational Research Teams Include Our Patients
Lee J. Helman, M.D. (Photo: R.Baer)
Translational research is routinely described as “from bench to bedside,” evoking a picture of scientists moving novel findings from basic labs into hypotheses that are evaluated in clinical trials. While this is true in part, at the Center for Cancer Research (CCR), the picture is much broader.
CCR’s story is one of translational successes: converting lab concepts into clinical advances, and taking clinical observations back to the laboratory to make more scientific breakthroughs. Our translational research is a sophisticated, multidisciplinary network that includes our patients, nurses, clinicians, and scientists, as well as database and technology experts—all offering their analytic, clinical, and communicative expertise, and all moving in unity to develop improved outcomes for our patients. We have built our network upon an enabling, patient-centered, and comprehensive infrastructure backed by a sustained commitment to stay the course in support of potential high-reward opportunities for breakthroughs.
In this issue of CCR connections, we showcase our translational research teams. The story told in “IL-15 Prepares for Its Clinical Debut,” shares how our teams assemble ad hoc to bring IL-15 into patient trials.
We also offer insights into the key role our nurses play in seeing experimental approaches and agents advance from patient trials into oncology practice. “CCR Nurses: Collaborative, Committed, and Caring Amidst Complexity” captures their ability to remain the face of compassion and the hands of care, while cancer’s complexity requires them to work behind the scenes, juggling data entry, modality scheduling, adverse reporting, and industry collaborations.
And taking a calculated risk based on sound proof-of-concept science is the modus operandi for our translational teams. Whether we are harnessing imaging to improve prostate cancer detection, by better guiding biopsy sampling and training oncologists to perform nerve- sparing robotic surgery as described in “Imaging Minimally Invasive Therapy,” or leading the discovery and development of new molecules from the natural world to the clinic as described in “Faculty Successes: ‘NExT’ Opportunities for CCR Investigators in Drug Discovery and Development,” CCR’s translational researchers work hand in hand with our most valued members of the multidisciplinary network, our patients. So when we do make progress, our successes are their successes, too.
