New cancer research head aims for focused approach

The Irish Cancer Society plans to adopt a much more targeted approach to how it funds cancer research in the coming years.

The goal is to get the research out of the labs and into improved treatments for the patient as quickly as possible, states the new chairwoman of the society's research division, Cancer Research Ireland (CRI).

"One of the key long-term goals of CRI is to develop translational research, bringing treatments to the patients," says Prof Cliona O'Farrelly. She took over as CRI chairwoman last month, replacing former chairman, Dr Michael Moriarty of St Luke's Hospital Dublin.

O'Farrelly argues that while basic research brings new knowledge, it is important that this is translated into better patient care. For this laboratory benchtop-to-bedside transition to occur efficiently, there must be close links between the third-level institutions doing the research and their associated teaching hospitals where the research will become meaningful to patients.

"It is really critical that all the teaching hospitals are somehow linked to top class cancer research," says O'Farrelly, who is a research immunologist at St Vincent's Hospital and director of its education and research centre.

This has not been the traditional approach adopted by the Society and the CRI as it disbursed the €2 million it provides annually to cancer research. Clearly there was a desire to fund quality research, but there was only limited targeting of the financial resources available.

"There wasn't any specific funding strategy or focus in prior years," O'Farrelly says. "Projects were funded on the basis of merit alone." The CRI is now changing this, attempting to use its funding in support of translational research in those areas where Ireland is making important research strides. It represents a "very important move forward", she believes.

The change will be apparent in the next call for research proposals, due to be made by the CRI within the coming fortnight. It will look for research projects that have strong translational and clinical links. It wants those bidding for funding to show co-operative re-search activities with other research centres. And yet it will also include the potential for one "blue skies" research project that does not necessarily have a translational element to it, O'Farrelly adds.

The new CRI strategy, still being developed, should deliver a number of benefits, she argues. "One, it will become clear to the public what CRI is all about. You can also help to build up critical mass and expertise in the malignancies that are most important to the Irish population." These include cancers of the colon and prostate, two cancers that were highlighted in the last round of funding proposals, she says. "It should also encourage collaboration amongst people who previously have been working in isolation." She also wants to support promising young researchers with CRI funding.

"We hope to fund a series of research fellowships that would be for clinicians and scientists involved in cancer research," she adds. "It is going to be a number of years before we see the benefit of having a more targeted approach." All of this will have to be done within the full view of the public who help provided the €2 million used to support 17 new and 23 renewed research projects around the State last year, O'Farrelly believes. And CRI is anxious to develop better ways to get its message about the value of cancer research out to the public.

It hopes to stage a competition that will place five or six of the funded researchers before the public where they will have to explain their work using ordinary language. In this way the research results coming out of the generosity shown year after year in support of the Irish Cancer Society will become more real and tangible, O'Farrelly suggests.