Abstract
In order to secure high‐quality cancer care for increasing numbers of cancer patients in the upcoming decades, the complete continuum of cancer research and cancer care needs a thorough overhaul, with more emphasis on prevention and early detection, and a greater focus on the development of innovative treatments that are also scrutinised for effectiveness and quality‐of‐life aspects. Therefore, under‐resourced research areas, such as primary prevention, early diagnosis/secondary prevention (Song et al., 2018; Wild et al., 2015) and outcomes research (Cavers et al., 2017), should be given more emphasis, whereas basic, preclinical and clinical cancer research requires more innovation and effective collaboration to develop more effective treatments at an affordable cost. Innovative collaborative research in this translational trajectory requires the participation of well‐resourced and well‐organised institutions that are committed to high scientific and ethical standards. Offering focused funding to distinct segments of this research continuum concomitant with incentives to aspire to high‐quality standards is the most effective route to achieve these goals. Therefore, a rigorous quality assessment system for institutions operating in this research continuum is a high priority.
Highlights
Insights into the underlying molecular mechanisms of cancer development have provided important new inroads in treating cancer
For research in the area of primary prevention, institutes with strong epidemiological expertise and access to large patient databases and biospecimen repositories seem best positioned. These activities might be conducted within comprehensive cancer centres or operate independently with a different set-up and within other organisational structures
All aspects of the research continuum, namely basic cancer research, prevention, early detection, secondary prevention, translational research, clinical evaluation and outcomes research, should have access to funding mechanisms tailored to the specific needs for advancing the respective field
Summary
Insights into the underlying molecular mechanisms of cancer development have provided important new inroads in treating cancer. For research in the area of primary prevention, institutes with strong epidemiological expertise and access to large patient databases and biospecimen repositories seem best positioned These activities might be conducted within comprehensive cancer centres or operate independently with a different set-up and within other organisational structures. Even dedicated single institutions might have insufficient reach to conduct such studies without collaborating closely with other institutions with which they share technological platforms, quality standards, patient cohorts, biobanks, and patient or population databases They have to collectively cover the complete trajectory of research and have the capacity to disseminate the acquired expertise to substantially improve overall cancer care. This limits innovation and, one might expect it would lead to competition and bring down the high pricing of the resulting ‘me too’ biologicals with fairly identical mechanisms of action and effectiveness, this appears to not be the case
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