Abstract
ABSTRACTCancer therapeutics currently have the lowest clinical trial success rate of all major diseases. Partly as a result of the paucity of successful anti-cancer drugs, cancer will soon be the leading cause of mortality in developed countries. As a disease embedded in the fundamentals of our biology, cancer presents difficult challenges that would benefit from uniting experts from a broad cross-section of related and unrelated fields. Combining extant approaches with novel ones could help in tackling this challenging health problem, enabling the development of therapeutics to stop disease progression and prolong patient lives. This goal provided the inspiration for a recent workshop titled ‘Rethinking Cancer’, which brought together a group of cancer scientists who work in the academic and pharmaceutical sectors of Europe, America and Asia. In this Editorial, we discuss the main themes emerging from the workshop, with the aim of providing a snapshot of key challenges faced by the cancer research community today. We also outline potential strategies for addressing some of these challenges, from understanding the basic evolution of cancer and improving its early detection to streamlining the thorny process of moving promising drug targets into clinical trials.
Highlights
In November 2016, a unique workshop titled ‘Rethinking Cancer’ was hosted by The Company of Biologists, the not-for-profit publisher of Disease Models & Mechanisms
Free-wheeling, two day discussion proved a good way to identify points where we can better focus to increase the impact of our work. This Editorial summarizes the outcome of the workshop, with a particular focus on challenges such as: (1) obtaining a better understanding of what clinical trials entail and possibilities for redesigning them; (2) improving initial detection of cancer in patients; (3) improving access to resources for researchers; (4) developing more predictive preclinical models of cancer; and (5) using genomics and systems biology more effectively
Understanding what clinical trials entail An important recommendation from this workshop is that basic researchers, institutions and funding agencies should take more responsibility to learn and encourage how to move from bench to bedside to allow better outcomes of drug discovery projects
Summary
In November 2016, a unique workshop titled ‘Rethinking Cancer’ was hosted by The Company of Biologists, the not-for-profit publisher of Disease Models & Mechanisms. This Editorial summarizes the outcome of the workshop, with a particular focus on challenges such as: (1) obtaining a better understanding of what clinical trials entail and possibilities for redesigning them; (2) improving initial detection of cancer in patients; (3) improving access to resources for researchers; (4) developing more predictive preclinical models of cancer; and (5) using genomics and systems biology more effectively.
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