Overcoming the translational roadblocks: a cancer care and research model

Abstract

There are many challenges to the process of translating the knowledge gained in the laboratory into new clinical approaches that can meet the needs of patients, clinicians and the wider community. We describe here an initiative that has borrowed concepts and principles from participatory research to produce a new process embedded in a cancer center aiming to facilitate translational research and overcome the three translational roadblocks. The centre‐wide project named Personal Response Determinants in Cancer Therapy (PREDICT) operates with the support of the centre's leadership, staff, volunteers and patients to contribute to current and future cancer research successes. We describe the different phases of the project, the current structure and lessons learned during its evolution, highlighting how PREDICT contributes to translational research and its linkage to participatory research concepts. Despite the contextualized nature of the PREDICT initiative, we believe that the framework developed for the project has the potential to help other clinical centers to overcome the translational research roadblocks.

The Availability of Human Biospecimens to Support Biomarker Research

“…Here, we will consider biobanks in the region of British Columbia Canada (total population 5 million), including a representative set of large biobanks, with which one of the authors (PW) is directly familiar. These biobanks have been in operation for between 10 and 40 years, comprise population cohort 36,37 and disease focused biobanks, [38][39][40] and represent biobanks supporting a range of health research. [36][37][38][39][40] The disease focused biobanks comprise either blood 37 or tissue collections 38 to support cancer research, and cardiovascular tissue 39 and lung tissue 40 collections that support health research in these respective areas.…”

“…These biobanks have been in operation for between 10 and 40 years, comprise population cohort 36,37 and disease focused biobanks, [38][39][40] and represent biobanks supporting a range of health research. [36][37][38][39][40] The disease focused biobanks comprise either blood 37 or tissue collections 38 to support cancer research, and cardiovascular tissue 39 and lung tissue 40 collections that support health research in these respective areas. Details of the current number of biospecimens reported by each biobank are shown in Table 1, along with a calculated average of the estimated number of biospecimens per million population in British Columbia.…”

Biobanking for Cancer Biomarker Research: Issues and Solutions

“…For individual researchers the challenge of obtaining the right biospecimens for a biomarker research study is very familiar. This challenge has in part been ameliorated by the increasing availability of high quality “digital” biospecimen derived datasets comprising research data generated from biospecimen cohorts that is often included as supplemental data in papers on individual studies, 30 or is available from large national and international “omics” initiatives that continue to be improved and expanded (eg, TCGA and Human Protein Atlas 31 , 32 ). With the recent disruption to biobanking caused by the COVID-19 pandemic these existing digital resources have become even more important.…”