Translational Research
Translational research transforms scientific discoveries arising from laboratory, clinical, or population studies into applications that may be used in the clinic to help patients. The purpose of translational research is to use what is learned from the science to reduce cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality.
According to Dr. John Glaspy at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA:
What researchers are doing in women’s cancers is using the power of molecular biology in the laboratory to sort broad diseases, like breast and ovarian cancers, into discrete subgroups based upon the diseases’ individual, respective biologies. It turns out that what drives Mrs Jones’s breast cancer is very different than what drives Mrs. Smith’s cancer. What makes each cancer different is what determines that cancer’s therapy. Researchers are sorting the diseases and developing signposts for how to proceed with treating each subtype. Tumors and blood samples are collected from patients, taken back to the laboratory and tested to improve treatments. The iterative process of collaboration between the clinic and the laboratory and vice-versa is what we call translational research, and it’s drastically accelerating the rates at which we can develop new, effective treatments.
