Beyond the breakthroughs:
Lee Nadler, MD, discusses Dana-Farber's strategies for
turning basic discoveries into benefits for cancer patients
By Richard Saltus
"Translation requires a diverse team that includes bench scientists, multidisciplinary
clinicians, clinical investigators, statisticians, nurses, and data managers."
— Lee Nadler, MD
A bust of Winston Churchill sits prominently in the office of Lee Nadler, MD, and a sign on the door proclaims: "Adult Oncology War Room." Nadler, in his own fierce desire to cure cancer, takes inspiration from the indomitable World War II British leader and shares his sense of urgency.
Like the Allied plans to invade Europe and win the war, Nadler's blueprint to speed up the battle on cancer is bold and sweeping. Since he was appointed Dana-Farber's senior vice president for Experimental Medicine in 2001, Nadler has focused on what he views as the most important challenge for Dana-Farber and other top cancer centers. That is, to seize the opportunity to harness an explosion in basic research to create new treatments, diagnostic tests, and preventive strategies for cancer. Today, according to Nadler, that process — known as "translational research" — is lagging at Dana-Farber and throughout the world of cancer research.
Converting scientific discoveries into benefits for patients (moving from "bench to bedside") was the goal of Institute founder Sidney Farber, MD, and his successor, Physician-in-Chief Emeritus Emil "Tom" Frei III, MD. Their combined efforts decades ago made a difference to patients, dramatically improving the survival of children with leukemia. Even though scientists today understand much more about cancer at its fundamental level, Nadler says, that knowledge all too often remains buried in academic journals and not applied.
Nadler has been at Dana-Farber since 1977 as a scientist and physician, probing the role of the body's immune system in cancer, particularly in B-cell lymphomas. He is former chair of Adult Oncology (renamed Medical Oncology this year) and has received numerous honors, including his appointment as the first incumbent of the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professorship of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
In a recent journal article, Nadler praised an unusual move by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which normally funds basic research, to give $1 million a year to a dozen top physician-scientists from all medical fields to pursue translational research. This is only a beginning, he cautions: More systematic support for translational work is needed throughout the cancer-research world.
In an interview with Paths of Progress (POP), Nadler outlined his vision for findng a way to more effectively bridge Dana-Farber's strengths: scientific discovery and clinical care.
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