Experimental Therapeutics (ET)

EXPERIMENTAL THERAPEUTICS PROGRAM ABSTRACT The Experimental Therapeutics (ET) Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) is the hub that connects and coordinates discoveries made in the basic sciences with translational research and clinical trials to improve diagnostics, disease management, and treatment outcomes for cancer patients. This broad-reaching program coordinates faculty from numerous departments conducting research on mechanisms underlying normal and abnormal cellular biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and molecular and cell biology with physician-scientists and clinical researchers. The overarching goal is to improve patient outcomes by identifying and validating novel treatment approaches, fostering translational research to adapt laboratory observations into novel interventions, and conducting clinical research to assess the effectiveness of new treatment approaches in humans. ET Program Aims encompass discovery and translation of HCI research into clinical practice through development of novel treatment interventions, original investigator-initiated trials (IITs), industry trials (including first-in-human trials), and trials in cooperation with the National Cancer Trials Network (NCTN), all with special emphasis on cancers of particular relevance in HCI’s catchment area—the State of Utah. The Specific Aims are: 1) to develop new cancer therapies based on discoveries from HCI science, and 2) to develop innovative treatment interventions and conduct translational and clinical research, with special emphasis on cancers relevant to HCI’s catchment area. The ET Program’s 59 members belong to 15 departments within three University of Utah schools/colleges. Peer-reviewed cancer-related funding was $4.9M at the end of 2018, with $2.6M (53%) of that from the National Cancer Institute. Program members also hold $9.8M in industry funding. During the previous cycle, ET members published 970 peer-reviewed cancer research papers. Of these, 20% resulted from intra-programmatic collaborations, while 23% represent inter-programmatic collaborations. Further, the Program houses 288 interventional treatment trials that accrued 676 patients in 2018. The ET Program is instrumental to the success of HCI’s overall mission to improve the outcomes of cancer patients. In particular, we: 1) translate deep basic mechanistic understandings and pioneering preclinical translational research into original clinical trials, and 2) collect and conduct iterative analysis of specimens from patients on clinical trials to improve our understanding of disease mechanisms and therapeutic sensitivity or resistance in human beings. Going forward, the ET Program will strive to bring research full circle to fuel a virtuous cycle of discovery, preclinical translation, clinical testing, and bedside-to-bench analyses.