City of Hope's Comprehensive Cancer Center provides a multidisciplinary, interactive environment, with basic, clinical and translational, and prevention and control scientists working closely together. The opportunities afforded for translational research in this stimulating intellectual environment contribute to the exciting and productive research under way within the Cancer Center.
Our five Programs represent a continuum in which basic and translational studies in the basic science program, Cancer Biology (CB), and one clinical program, Developmental Cancer Therapeutics (DCT), can be linked to Phase I and II clinical protocols in all three clinical programs—DCT, Cancer Immunotherapeutics (CI), and Hematologic Malignancies (HM)—and follow up studies in survivorship and symptom management in the Cancer Control and Populations Sciences (CCPS) Program. On this continuum, CI has strong activities across translational and clinical research, while HM is predominantly clinical, with some translational activities, especially in collaboration with other Programs. All these activities are made possible by a Center and Institutional infrastructure that supports basic and translational research in biological and in small molecule approaches to cancer.
The arrow in the Figure below represents our realization that, even as activities move to the right toward clinical realization, there is a strong requirement to recycle back to developmental activities in response to the knowledge we gain in early clinical application. Our scientists are already doing this, and they are aided in this important arc in the cycle of discovery by our infrastructure. The CCPS Program also contributes to the cycle by providing downstream information on effects of therapy and also potential prevention and therapeutic targets—findings arising out of survivorship and molecular epidemiological work of CCPS. These findings may then be explored by other Programs in the continuum.
Basic Science Research Program
The City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center provides both the infrastructure and the environment for outstanding basic science research. ("Basic science" refers to research conducted in a laboratory setting.) In turn, this research contributes to our understanding of the underlying genetic, molecular, and biological bases of cancer. The City of Hope Basic Science Research Program is called Cancer Biology (CB).
Clinical and Translational Research Programs
City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center's clinical and translational research programs focus on the translation of novel laboratory observations into the treatment of patients (and their families) at the City of Hope and, ultimately, throughout the world. The number of the Center's novel (Phases I and I/II) clinical trials increases yearly. The City of Hope Clinical and Translational Science Research Programs are:
Prevention and Control Program
Cancer Prevention and Control research at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center is conducted within a program on Cancer Control and Population Sciences (CCPS). The members of this research program cover an extensive spectrum of disciplines, which is further broadened by additional collaborations with physician investigators. Such a confederation of expertise, working within a collaborative environment, maximizes productive interaction. The Program
focuses on four important areas of concentration:
- host and environmental determinants of cancer
- heath-related outcomes and quality of life after cancer
- interventional studies to reduce cancer-related morbidity
- educational initiatives