4 ms·

I'm sorry that you think academia isn't "with the program". There's lots of great basic and translational research going on in the academic sphere. Can you at l

I'm sorry that you think academia isn't "with the program". There's lots of great basic and translational research going on in the academic sphere. Can you at least elaborate, if you're going to paint us all with a broad brush?

sjg007 11y ago
Academic cancer centers need to focus on improving clinical outcomes, not just basic research. That cancer centers are associated with primary research institutions universities is largely a compromise between with the NIH and the NCI when the national cancer act was implemented. Tenure is based on basic research publications and on not clinical trials. So therapies are not optimized.
- 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
  How are we supposed to cure diseases we don't fully understand? How can radical new solutions be tested if we don't even know if they're feasible? Basic research answers these questions.
  - sjg007 11y ago
    If you would have waited until you fully understood a disease in order to treat it then kids would still be dying of leukemia today instead of having a 90% remission rate today. People should read about Emil Freireich and the development of chemotherapy.
    - nonbel 11y ago
      >"kids would still be dying of leukemia today instead of having a 90% remission rate today" Do you know a good source for the historical data? I am wondering how they rule out that in the 1950s/60s they saw only much sicker patients, while today a bigger population gets diagnosed and treated. Related, there may be lead time bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time_bias Any source with discussion of these methodological issues would be helpful.
- xaa 11y ago
  Where is the money supposed to come from for this? Keeping basic research labs afloat in the current funding environment is hard enough -- clinical trials etc are orders of magnitude more expensive, and not practical for most academics, even those interested in translational research. For better or worse, our current model is for academics to do basic and early-stage translational research (mostly animal models), then sell/spin off to companies to do the actual trials and reap the profits. I don't see what academics are supposed to do about this.
  - sjg007 11y ago
    It would come from contracts from the NCI.

sjg007 11y ago

Academic cancer centers need to focus on improving clinical outcomes, not just basic research. That cancer centers are associated with primary research institutions universities is largely a compromise between with the NIH and the NCI when the national cancer act was implemented. Tenure is based on basic research publications and on not clinical trials. So therapies are not optimized.

88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
How are we supposed to cure diseases we don't fully understand? How can radical new solutions be tested if we don't even know if they're feasible? Basic research answers these questions.
- sjg007 11y ago
  If you would have waited until you fully understood a disease in order to treat it then kids would still be dying of leukemia today instead of having a 90% remission rate today. People should read about Emil Freireich and the development of chemotherapy.
  - nonbel 11y ago
    >"kids would still be dying of leukemia today instead of having a 90% remission rate today" Do you know a good source for the historical data? I am wondering how they rule out that in the 1950s/60s they saw only much sicker patients, while today a bigger population gets diagnosed and treated. Related, there may be lead time bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time_bias Any source with discussion of these methodological issues would be helpful.
xaa 11y ago
Where is the money supposed to come from for this? Keeping basic research labs afloat in the current funding environment is hard enough -- clinical trials etc are orders of magnitude more expensive, and not practical for most academics, even those interested in translational research. For better or worse, our current model is for academics to do basic and early-stage translational research (mostly animal models), then sell/spin off to companies to do the actual trials and reap the profits. I don't see what academics are supposed to do about this.
- sjg007 11y ago
  It would come from contracts from the NCI.