Usc Tube Top Blood Draw
From test tubes to treatments
Peter A. Jones: "We are at the frontier of identifying not only the causes of cancer, but also of understanding patients' prognoses, developing better treatments, discovering cures and finding ways to prevent cancer in the first place."
It used to be that scientists conducted studies in labs, physicianscared for patients in hospitals and the twain hardly ever met.
For the most part, the situation worked well for everybody involved,because the researcher examining cells and genes worked in anentirely different arena from the doctor treating an individual'sillness.
But all that has changed. As research probes ever deeper into thegenetic, molecular and cellular basis of cancer and other diseases,the scientific and medical worlds have found good reasons to team up.Together, they can search for the causes of cancer, find ways toprevent it, predict how a particular cancer is likely to progress andexplore how the disease might one day be cured.
The bridge linking scientific observations to patient care is calledtranslational research – a fairly new and rapidly growing field ofstudy. Quite simply, translational research involves "translating"epidemiological and laboratory studies into new methods ofpreventing, controlling and treating disease.
But for basic research to reach the patient, lab scientists, clinicalinvestigators and physicians must work together. That's what is nowhappening at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, underdirector Peter A. Jones' guidance.
An internationally recognized researcher into the genetic causes ofcancer, Jones has been named an Outstanding Investigator by theNational Cancer Institute for his DNA studies. In the past year, hespearheaded a reorganization of the USC/Norris to promotecollaboration among scientists, investigators and physicians fromvarious disciplines.
In the following interview, Jones explains his views on translationalresearch and how it has resulted in novel approaches to diseaseprevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.
Q: Can you explain how translational research works?
A: A basic researcher may study fundamental aspects of cells – suchas how cells metastasize in the body, how genes work, how cellsdivide or how organisms develop. Large amounts of knowledge aregenerated from such studies. Translational research takes thosefundamental observations and applies them to a patient – or human -population, basing the therapy on the results of the studies.
Q: Why has translational research become so important over the pastseveral years?
A: Biochemists have been translating their observations into clinicaltrials for many, many years, but it is done on a much broader levelnow. Translational research has become much more in vogue over thelast few years as we begin to understand fundamental diseaseprocesses, such as the molecular basis of disease. We can definegenes that become altered, map their course, understand how genesfunction within cells and identify their roles in different kinds ofcancer. There is a real movement to translate this geneticinformation to the human population.
Q: How has translational research changed the way studies areconducted and patient care is delivered at the USC/Norris?
A: In the past, researchers were organized by the basis of theirscientific disciplines. So we had a group of molecular biologists inone place, a group of epidemiologists in another place and a group ofcell biologists somewhere else, and these fundamental fountainheadsof knowledge were focused on their own specialties and approaches.About a year ago, we reorganized the USC/Norris Cancer Center. Weopened new disease-oriented, rather than discipline-based, programs.Clinicians interested in the treatment of breast cancer,epidemiologists and geneticists interested in its cause andbiochemists working on hormonal therapies to modulate breast cancercells work side by side. Their common ground is the disease, and theyinteract with each other to implement all of their knowledge to treatthe disease. Through such close interaction and interdisciplinarycross-talk, patients will be able to participate in new tests andtrials and treatment modalities tailored to their particularsituation.
Q: What programs have been established at the USC/Norris followingthis interdisciplinary model?
A: We have four important interdisciplinary programs: a GenitourinaryCancer Program, which focuses on bladder and prostate cancers,bridging urology, epidemiology and molecular biology; the BreastCancer Program integrates molecular genetics, epidemiology,therapeutics and surgery; our Hematology/Retroviral Diseases Programincludes research and treatment of hematologic malignancies anddiseases such as lymphoma and AIDS; and our Gastrointestinal CancerProgram, our newest interdisciplinary project.
Q: Can you explain how translational research can lead to moreeffective cancer treatments?
A: A project in the Gastrointestinal Program, led by LaurenceLeichman, shows how translation of a basic lab finding can be used totailor chemotherapy treatment. We know that many patients withgastrointestinal cancer do not respond to the chemotherapy mostcommonly used for the disease, but the problem is knowing which willrespond and which won't. Through basic research performed by PeterDanenberg, we know that the level of a certain enzyme within tumorspredicts response to that particular chemotherapy, and patients whooverexpress that target enzyme are not likely to respond to the drug.So we will not waste the patient's valuable time on that therapy.
Q: Can translational research also be valuable in predicting apatient's prognosis?
A: Yes. For example, the lab and the urology and pathologydepartments recently collaborated on a study that might lead toenhanced prognostic approaches for bladder cancer. We identified thegenetic defects that underlie the progressive [more invasive] kindsof bladder cancer. With this knowledge, we are able to analyze aperson's cancer for this gene mutation using a simple test developedby Richard Cole. Patients who have the mutation are more likely toget the progressive form of the disease and should be treated withchemotherapy, while patients with the other forms of bladder cancercan have their cancer removed surgically and possibly not have toundergo the same kind of follow-up therapy.
Q: You've given two examples of how translational research canimprove cancer treatment. But has it ever been used to preventcancer?
A: Epidemiological observations from the Breast Cancer Program wererecently translated into a nationally publicized prevention study.The idea was formulated that exposure to hormones – particularlyestrogen – plays a major role in generating breast cancer. It wasalso shown that exercise decreases levels of estrogen in young women.If that is the case, we would think that girls who exerciseextensively at an early age may have a decreased chance of developingbreast cancer later in life. A study in the Breast Cancer Program ledby Leslie Bernstein, Ronald Ross and Brian E. Henderson has shownthat increased physical activity can indeed reduce the risk of breastcancer.
Q: Is it possible that translational research may someday lead to acure for disease?
A: There are many possibilities. One example is gene therapy. Throughan emerging gene therapy program, we have not only treated butactually corrected certain blood diseases in children. For example, aparticular immune system disorder is caused by the lack of a certaingene. Researchers W. French Anderson and Donald Kohn have shown howto correct the disorder by taking the child's own white blood cells,infecting them with a virus carrying the missing gene and puttingthem back into the child. Using the virus as the carrier, the correctgene now thrives within the body. This treatment – which would nothave been possible without very basic research into how viruses work- may also be amenable to certain kinds of cancer.
Q: Do you believe, then, that translational research may ultimatelylead to a cure for cancer?
A: Researchers are coming up with new tests and studies all the time,and we are very close to getting to the molecular basis of cancer.Previously, we had markers associated with the disease. But now weare studying what actually causes the disease and why it progressesin a certain direction. We are at the frontier of identifying notonly the causes of cancer, but also of understanding patients'prognoses, developing better treatments, discovering cures andfinding ways to prevent cancer in the first place.
Maryann Hammers is a free-lance writer specializing in medicalissues.
From test tubes to treatments
Top stories on USC News
Source: https://news.usc.edu/24202/From-test-tubes-to-treatments/
0 Response to "Usc Tube Top Blood Draw"
Post a Comment