Cancer Research Programs
Cedars-Sinai Cancer has fostered the development of three research programs derived from our institutional strengths and priorities. As an emerging institute, we have concentrated efforts and resources to make the programs successful, well-funded, and interactive with each other, rather than attempting to nurture multiple possible programs.
Cedars-Sinai Cancer supports three programs, oriented toward cancer biology, translational oncology, and cancer prevention and control studies.
The purpose of the Cancer Biology Program (CBP) is to advance the understanding of cancer pathogenesis and facilitate the translation of basic science discoveries to the clinic. Under the leadership of Michael Freeman, PhD, and Neil Bhowmick, PhD, CBP research identifies communication between cancer cells and associated non-cancer cells critical to initiation, progression, and metastasis. The CBP supports bench research and provides a means of bringing concepts in clinical trials back to the bench. There is an intimate reciprocal interaction with the Translational Oncology Program (TOP) and the Cancer Prevention and Genetics Programs (CPGP). As a community-based medical center, the patient-centered ethos of Cedars-Sinai is engrained in the CBP. The character of the Program is inherently a product of its constituency of clinician-researchers, chemists, biologists, and physicists that consistently look to improve patient outcomes.
The Cedars-Sinai Cancer Translational Oncology Program (TOP) is a new and progressive model for clinical-translational research, both locally and nationally, that will bring the unique clinical strengths of Cedars Cancer to problems addressed in translational research efforts. Under the leadership of Stephen Pandol, MD, and Edwin Posadas, MD, the TOP is composed of physicians and scientists who have dedicated their careers to improving outcomes for cancer patients by combining the latest scientific discoveries with innovative and compassionate clinical care. The program partners with other areas of the Cancer Center to bring scientific discoveries to patients while helping our scientists to remain focused on the most urgent needs faced by cancer patients and their loved ones.
The key objectives and goals of the TOP are:
- Identification of clinically lethal cancers
- In many circumstances we have found that certain cancers can have less aggressive behavior. While cancer is a serious and important health condition, science is showing us that there are biological clues that certain cancers can be handled with less aggressive approaches that reduce the risk of harmful side effects from cancer therapy.
- Predictors of response to anticancer therapy
- With the growing number of options for treatment, cancer patients need to understand which options will work best and which will cause the most harm in order to optimize their choices. By combining clinical outcomes research with advancing biomarker studies, our program members work toward developing cancer care that is individualized and personalized.
- Development of nanotechnology-based diagnostics, therapeutics and theranostics in cancer
- Advances in engineering have produced a number of cutting-edge nanotechnology tools that can improve our ability to detect, diagnose and even visualize cancer. Other nanotechnologies can improve the way we utilize active and important anticancer drugs by homing them into tumor cells using nanocarriers, thereby increasing the drug's effect while dramatically reducing side effects.
For more information about the Translational Oncology Program, please send us a message.
The Cancer Prevention and Control Program (CPCP), under the guidance and leadership of Marc Goodman, MD, MPH, and Stephen Freedland, MD, investigates cancer etiology through genetic and epidemiological risk with the goal of using new knowledge to reduce incidence and mortality in diverse populations.
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Cedars-Sinai Cancer
8700 Beverly Blvd.
North Tower Mezzanine, C2004
Los Angeles, CA 90048