TED'S TAKE: CHAMPIONSHIP RELAYS START IN LEG ONE

 In cancer treatment and research, there’s often a focus on a few areas. We tend to ignore early stages of research, particularly basic science.  But what  if we focused on those early stages?

Consider a 400-meter relay race. There are generally four legs, and so four members on the team. The operative word here is “team”,  as in interconnectedness. If the focus was on having the fastest team members be the fourth or third legs of the team), it would suboptimize the race result. All legs are equally important. Only focusing on one or two legs doesn’t get us where we need to be as fast as needed. This is kind of how cancer treatment development and research works. Think of it like a cancer relay race.

In cancer research we tend to focus more dollars on the fourth leg - drug development/treatment. The third leg gets attention from government funders like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) but much of that occurs accidentally or inadvertently. After the third leg, drug companies take over. The early legs receive very little attention or dollars. But what if we treated all legs equally, or at least invested research dollars in the first two legs?

At JKTG Foundation, this defines our approach. We focus on early research – both the process and also at the basic science level. Not much is invested in these early fundamentals – the first or second leg. Perhaps others feel there’s no money to be made. But if we invest early, we will be in a better place much faster and progress from a more informed early position. This is the key.

Just like racing, in my cancer world, I need to get the research in the best position possible before it hits the third or fourth leg – maybe that’s NIH, a drug company, or someone else. But we have to build momentum if we want a chance to win. That’s why I’m working and investing in the early stages  of the research race. If we evolve treatments and strategies for patients from a better understanding of the “why,” we will be much more effective in treating patients and that’s why we’re in the race at all.