THE COLLABORATIVE MODEL

Global research collaboration can maximize and accelerate the impact of cancer research. According to Dr. Thomas, "Cancer research, traditionally in common cancers like breast, bowel and lung cancers, is founded on international collaboration. International collaboration has enabled major advances in the treatment of these cancers."

While significant progress has been made in understanding and treating the most common cancers in recent decades, few discoveries have led to new treatment methods for sarcomas. Dr. Ola Myklebost explains: "Because sarcomas are rare, it is a challenge to collect a sufficient number of patients and samples treated in the same way so that systematic studies can be done. Therefore, research is frequently fragmented."

"Fragmented" efforts by individual researchers around the world, combined with limited funding for research on rare cancers, can lead to frustratingly slow progress. But, according to Dr. Thomas, collaborative projects like this one may represent the future of rare cancer research: "No one hospital, region or country can provide enough patients or research expertise to single-handedly address the challenges of rare cancers. Developments in genomics, communications, and therapeutic advances over the past few years have provided impetus for greater collaboration in sarcomas--a process which is gathering momentum."

Multidisciplinary teams are known to provide the best management of rare diseases like sarcoma and are often associated with better patient outcomes. Dr. Barretina expects collaborative research teams to provide similar advantages: "The outcome of research should be better when performed by a group of scientists with different backgrounds and expertise."

Bruce and Beverly Shriver, Co-Founders of the Initiative, are enthusiastic about the study. "We hope that such collaborative studies will bring more effective and less invasive treatments from the research lab to the patient quicker than has been possible in the past. We also hope that the framework developed within this grant provides a mechanism and incentive for other sarcoma researchers to undertake similar international collaborative efforts."