Translational Cancer Research: Balancing Prevention and Treatment to Combat Cancer Globally

TLDR

Cancer research is leveraging the human genome project to develop molecular‑targeted treatments, yet the global cancer burden is rising—especially in developing countries—and treatment alone cannot solve the problem; mechanistic insights from basic science can inform prevention and public health strategies. The manuscript aims to apply new molecular and cellular knowledge, along with high‑throughput technologies, to population‑based epidemiological studies using large prospective cohorts and biobanks to build evidence for cancer prevention. It proposes integrating high‑throughput laboratory technologies with epidemiological data from large cohorts and biobanks to translate molecular insights into population‑level prevention strategies. This integrated approach should accelerate translation of research into educational and policy interventions that reduce risk across populations.

Abstract

Cancer research is drawing on the human genome project to develop new molecular-targeted treatments. This is an exciting but insufficient response to the growing, global burden of cancer, particularly as the projected increase in new cases in the coming decades is increasingly falling on developing countries. The world is not able to treat its way out of the cancer problem. However, the mechanistic insights from basic science can be harnessed to better understand cancer causes and prevention, thus underpinning a complementary public health approach to cancer control. This manuscript focuses on how new knowledge about the molecular and cellular basis of cancer, and the associated high-throughput laboratory technologies for studying those pathways, can be applied to population-based epidemiological studies, particularly in the context of large prospective cohorts with associated biobanks to provide an evidence base for cancer prevention. This integrated approach should allow a more rapid and informed translation of the research into educational and policy interventions aimed at risk reduction across a population.