Symposium Celebrates Progress, Demands Faster Results

Some of the most learned minds in cancer prevention, research and treatment convened at Fox Chase Cancer Center in June for the symposium "Toward a Future Without Cancer: Goals for the 21st Century." The symposium, held to honor outgoing Fox Chase president Robert C. Young, MD, and welcome new president Michael V. Seiden, MD, PhD, provided a comprehensive look at the deeply complex, multifaceted problem of cancer.

Scientists, CEOs, government and pharma/biotech officials, physicians and patients all agree that while the field is growing in leaps and bounds, there is still much more to do.

Distinguished guests of the symposium included John E. Niederhuber, MD, director, National Cancer Institute (NCI); Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Ed Harlow, PhD, chair of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, and member, National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine; Robert A. Ingram, founder, CEO Roundtable on Cancer; John R. Seffrin, PhD, CEO, American Cancer Society; the Honorable James C. Greenwood, former U.S. congressman and now president and CEO, Biotechnology Industry Organization; and Clifford Goodman, PhD, senior vice president, The Lewin Group, who served as moderator.

Seiden introduced the symposium by outlining a timetable of cancer treatment and research progress over the past 20 years, drawing poignant parallels with his personal experiences as a physician-researcher and a husband who lost his wife to cancer.

"The sobering truth is that ultimately Jean did not survive her breast cancer, despite access to the best care and the latest technologies," Seiden explained.

"Thus, despite the advances, despite the progress, despite the investment, we have a long way to go."

Such statements prompted the NCI's Niederhuber to acknowledge that "the pages are turning rapidly, but we are still at the front of the book." Niederhuber's notion that cancer is a "disease of staggering complexity" was a recurring theme throughout the symposium. One of the primary goals looking forward, Niederhuber said, is to tackle this complexity and search for reasons for why cancers spread.

Accelerating the time between research and application was a salient topic upon which all agreed. To that end, von Eschenbach stated that the FDA must be a bridge, not a barrier, to discovery and development.

"FDA must be proactive and not reactive, engaged in the total life cycle of products and solutions," he said. "It must facilitate the development of interventions—stay engaged even after products are approved so that we are observing, learning and understanding their impact on lives in the real world."

From a basic science perspective, some of the goals for the 21st century are to focus on fragmentation of tumors and the ability to deliver results faster, said veteran bench scientist Harlow.

"Diagnostic tests are beginning to show the extent of the fragmentation of tumor cells," said Harlow. "The biology of the cells is very different, which poses huge challenges for treatment."

Another obstacle in the way of transferring discovery to application is the duplication of therapeutic agents by pharmaceutical companies, Harlow said.

In response, Ingram, vice chairman for Glaxo-SmithKline, said, "We want to fill the gap, interact better at the discovery end, fill the toolbox but make it synergistic, not duplicative."

But the barrier to access, Ingram said, is the biggest problem for many cancer patients.

"The single most serious element to solving the cancer problem in the U.S. is the problem of access to health care, particularly quality health care for those who need it most—the working poor, the uninsured and the under-insured," said the ACS's Seffrin.

By 2015, the ACS hopes "everyone will have timely access to a full range of evidence-based health care necessary to optimize health and wellbeing."

Greenwood's chief concern is helping the public understand the importance of biotechnology, which will in turn affect policy makers.

"We take time to explain to Congress [the importance of biotechnology], but they reflect what the public demands and perceives," he explained. "The problem with biotechnology is that it is invisible.

"Rocket science is very complicated, but everyone knows what it looks like when the space shuttle takes off. No one knows what it looks like when Herceptin is injected into the veins of a breast cancer patient. No one can see it, therefore no one can see why it is worth [its high price tag]."

By making biotechnology more visible through educational outlets such as television and the Internet, Greenwood hopes "young people will become inspired to enter these fields and Americans will understand what amazing capacity this science has and they will demand it from elected offcials to secure a future [without cancer]."

A future without cancer is reachable if we "do the right things," Seffrin emphasized. And Fox Chase's Seiden effectively presented those right things by saying, "I believe that the progress we have made and, even more importantly, the progress that will be made in the next 20 years will come fastest and most tangibly through maximizing integration and coordination of clinicians and scientists with emerging technologies."