Responding to the Cancer Moonshot initiative, a panel of scientists, clinicians, patient advocates, and industry representatives has issued 10 recommendations for accelerating cancer research in an article published in Science.
The recommendations address:
• Development of a patient engagement network.
• Precise cataloging of tumor molecular changes.
• Analysis of samples already available from patients who have received the standard of care.
• Improvements for data sharing, access, and analysis.
• Development of models to understand how childhood cancers develop.
• Research to describe how fusion oncoproteins drive cancer development.
• Creation of a cancer immunotherapy clinical trials network.
• Systematic efforts to gather information on patient-reported outcomes.
• Implementation of evidence-based approaches to prevention.
The panel’s recommendations were presented to the National Cancer Advisory Board, the adviser to the National Cancer Institute. The ability to conduct research stemming from the panel’s recommendations will depend on whether, and how much, funding is approved by Congress.
Read the article here: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2016/09/07/science.aai7862.full.