Finding a Cure for Cancer: The Critical Role Played by the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation

Gina Kolata’s article, “Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe” (July 28, 2009) makes some good points which directly address the critical role the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation plays in furthering transformative cancer research.

The article (see link below to read in its entirety) stresses that a large impediment is, “...the grant system itself. It has become a sort of jobs program, a way to keep research laboratories going year after year with the understanding that the focus will be on small projects unlikely to take significant steps toward curing cancer... with too little money to finance most proposals, they ( NIH reviewers) are timid about taking chances on ones that might succeed. ...projects that could make a major difference in cancer prevention and treatment are all too often crowded out because they are too uncertain. In fact, it has become lore among cancer researchers that some game-changing discoveries involved projects deemed too unlikely to succeed and were therefore denied federal grants, forcing researchers to struggle mightily to continue.”

For 33 years, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation has been committed to filling such gaps through:

Recognizing the Importance of Innovative Collaborations:

“We would like to express to you our appreciation for your initial support of our program in Engineered Tumor Immunity. We used these resources as seed grants which were then leveraged to acquire an R01 [from the National Cancer Institute], a W. M. Keck Foundation Award and several grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. A revised Program Project grant [to the National Cancer Institute] was submitted last May. It would have been very difficult for us to achieve these successes in our research program without the generous and visionary support of your foundation.”

David Baltimore
Nobel Laureate
Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology,
California Institute of Technology

James Economou
Professor and Chief, Surgical Oncology
Deputy Director, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA

“It's increasingly difficult to do the type of high-risk, more speculative science that might, just might, make a big difference to our understanding and treatment of cancer. The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation has, uniquely, given my laboratory the chance to think, and experiment, outside the box and address some hard questions about how cancers form and how they are sustained.”

Gerard Evan, PhD
Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research
University of California, San Francisco

Maintaining On-Going Research Programs:
Sustained, not temporary, funding of multidisciplinary interaction of highly experienced NIH funded scientists may facilitate the process. Innovation and entrepreneurism takes creativity and courage, and may not be appreciated by scientific peer review groups. Broadening the peer review process to include experts that have these qualities would encourage funding programs of this type.

Establishment of Institute Without Walls Core Facilities:
At certain stages of research most potential drug discovery comes to a halt. Government, public Foundations and Industry should form a partnership to provide a structure to remove the barriers from taking academic research to drug discovery. This should include a clear pathway to encourage the pursuit of early drug discovery and provide contracts awarded by a combined expert review process.

Link to the full article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/health/research/28cancer.html