Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy
Transforming Cancer Care through Research
About the Institute
The IPCT is intended to accelerate the development of safer, more effective cancer therapies and play a critical role in our efforts to best match patients to the most effective treatments. It will foster discoveries that will enable physicians to determine the specific genetic, both germline and somatic, and molecular abnormalities in each patient's cancer and then prescribe the appropriate therapy. The Institute's primary work will be to: 1) identify the laboratory discoveries with the greatest potential to lead to innovative anticancer agents, diagnostic mechanisms to identify key targets in a patient's tumor and predictive and prognostic markers; 2) provide essential funding and resources to expedite the testing and evaluation of new agents, new approaches and new diagnostic tests to move toward FDA approval for widespread use or commercial licensing; and 3) facilitate interactions and communication among IPCT investigators to accelerate progress and reduce costs.
"We will develop and investigate new therapies to target genes that cause cancer and the molecular pathways that promote proliferation, survival and metastasis of cancer cells."
-- John Mendelsohn
Mission
Transform the approach to cancer therapy through research, integrating germline, molecular and genetic information with disease-specific biology, to bring personalized cancer therapy to the clinic.
Charge of the IPCT
The charge of the IPCT is to make a comprehensive plan to achieve major advances in personalizing cancer treatment through 1) the integration of our Multidisciplinary Care Centers, 2) providing clinical infrastructure support, 3) integration of biostatistics and bioinformatics into IPCT, 4) integration with existing translational research programs (CCSG, SPOREs, P01s, DoD) and 5) recruitment to fill in specific gaps.
"Plan our research to achieve major advances in individualizing cancer treatment, set-up framework to achieve goals and capture funds through various mechanisms."
-- John Mendelsohn
Strategic Vision
Goals
- Organization and prioritization of common goals
- Creating infrastructure
- Specimen collection
- Integrated database
- Regulatory and contractual support
- Molecular pathology
- Data analysis
- Sustaining interactions among IPCT investigators
- Training and sustaining investigators and essential personnel
- Secure research funding