Translational Oncology

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TRANSLATIONAL ONCOLOGY- PROGRAM Raymond Bergan, MD, and Sara A. Courtneidge, PhD, Program Co-Leaders ABSTRACT Translational Oncology (TO) is a multi-disciplinary program within the Knight Cancer Institute whose mission is to improve treatments, outcomes, and quality of life for people with cancer by advancing translational science. Members have transformed the field of translational cancer research and continue to lead by pursuing two integrated research themes: 1) validation of high value therapeutic targets, and 2) assessing the feasibility and efficacy of therapeutically targeting these pathways through impactful clinical investigations. Target validation is focused on intrinsic molecular cancer abnormalities, pathways that lead to invasion and metastases, interactions of cancer cells with the microenvironment, mechanisms of resistance to current therapies, and preclinical evaluation or development of novel agents targeting these pathways. Projects in the second theme focus on the development of drugs targeting tumor intrinsic molecular abnormalities, the tumor microenvironment, and immunotherapeutics, along with studies designed to understand how best to use these agents, who responds, why resistance occurs and means to circumvent resistance. The program is co-led by Raymond Bergan, MD, a molecular pharmacologist whose research focuses on targeted therapy across the spectrum of carcinogenesis, and Sara A. Courtneidge, PhD, a translational scientist whose research focuses on invadopodia and the microenvironment. The TO Program is comprised of 52 members from 14 Departments at OHSU. Between July 2011 and March 2016, TO members produced 623 cancer-relevant publications, of which 23% represented intra- programmatic, 25% inter-programmatic and 59% represented inter-institutional collaborative interactions. In 2015, a total of 2,019 individuals were entered on clinical studies, 700 of them interventional, 481 therapeutic. Total funding for the program is $27,170,631, peer-reviewed funding is $10,359,011, with $3,010,767 or 29% from NCI. Other cancer-relevant funding includes prostate and pancreatic Stand Up To Cancer Dream Team grants, several cancer clinical trials consortia, and a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society-funded program called Beat AML. In the current funding cycle, TO investigators had crucial roles in driving changes in FDA-approvals for 9 different agents for indications linked to improved survival in 12 cancers.