Looking to the Future

Innovations in cancer research through interdisciplinary team science approaches will help shape the future of patient care. Integration and mining of health care data from various sources will allow researchers to gain more insights into cancer biology and thereby improve patient outcomes. Cutting-edge technologies that fuel the full spectrum of cancer science from bench to bedside will accelerate the pace at which we increase our understanding of cancer biology while transforming the future of clinical practice. This is an exciting era of cancer research. Approval of novel therapeutics, coupled with an increasing public awareness of cancer prevention and early detection, has led to dramatic reductions in overall cancer mortality rates for all Americans. Recent discoveries in the fields of cancer genomics and immunology have firmly established two new pillars of cancer care--molecularly targeted therapy and immunotherapy--which are benefiting many patients with a wide range of cancer types.