肿瘤学的开拓者:
风险与希望——推动癌症治疗的改进

写的:

约翰F. 当

澳门葡京网赌游戏免疫肿瘤学副总裁,全球产品负责人

我的孩子们非常喜欢篮球,就像我在他们这个年龄时一样. 在篮球方面, the most successful players are never afraid to take the shot that may win them the game. 如果他们错过了,他们也不会纠结于此. 他们更加努力地制作下一个. 我看到了澳门葡京赌博游戏在肿瘤学研究中的相似之处, 科学和创新使澳门葡京赌博游戏努力消除癌症这一致死原因. We cannot let one miss hold us down, and when we have a win, we do not rest on our laurels. 澳门葡京赌博游戏继续为下一个目标而奋斗.


拓展

和许多科学家一样,我的人生之路始于学术道路. I was motivated early on to pursue scientific inquiry for the purpose of improving other people’s lives; graduate school and my postdoctoral fellowship gave me the opportunity to explore my options. 我对肿瘤学的好奇心得到了满足.

曾经是时候向专业领域过渡了, 我退后一步,评估对我来说最重要的是什么. 加上我妻子的一些自省和有益的建议, I realized that while basic research is invaluable to the process of discovering new treatments, it is still several steps removed from bringing treatments directly to patients.

I decided to move away from academia and accepted a role in drug development which opened my eyes to a different side of medicine. 我接触到了临床, 还有监管和医疗事务团队, 这让我了解了开发新药的原理. I was inspired by the way translational medicine bridges the gap from early research and development to late-stage clinical development. This eventually led me to my current role where I get to help shape our strategy for developing certain oncology medicines, 并最终, 把它们带给病人.  

转型中的挑战

最初, leaving translational medicine and focusing more on development strategy pushed me outside of my comfort zone. But it presented such a unique opportunity to be part of bringing new discoveries from the lab to the bedside — to join a team that’s not afraid to take that winning shot in oncology.

In hindsight, my day-to-day is not so different than it would have been on the academic track. I get to work closely with a group of like-minded individuals driven toward the same goal of someday curing cancer. 一路走来, I get to challenge others to dig into the data to help inform our next Phase III trials. These conversations can provoke new ideas and research that drives cancer treatment forward.

Something I find amazing is that this role allows me to do what I had always wanted: bring projects to fruition that can transform the oncology treatment landscape. 我早期的一些研究涉及到生物标志物的发现, and it has been such a privilege to see that work evolve into immunotherapies that can change the lives of people with many different types of cancer today.

Immunotherapy has transformed the field of oncology by harnessing the natural power of the immune system to help eliminate cancer cells from the body. 澳门葡京网赌游戏在免疫肿瘤学领域处于领先地位, 特别是在我的专业胃肠道(GI)癌症. 不幸的是, 胃肠道癌症仍然是一个未满足需求的领域, 澳门葡京赌博游戏正在不知疲倦地工作,以确保安全, effective and novel combination therapies to increase survival and quality of life for people with these diseases.

我很高兴能在澳门葡京网赌游戏工作, where our rich pipeline has the potential to propel the cancer field forward.  



肿瘤研究中的风险与希望

My personal experience has taught me that the greatest growth and discovery comes from embracing discomfort and accepting uncertainty. 研究和药物发现也是如此. Every day that our team spends pushing the boundaries of science and challenging our understanding of cancer pathology, we are pioneering the new innovations that could bring the next generation of treatments.

肿瘤学 research involves significant risk and requires an appreciation for the fact that progress is not always a straight line. Just like in basketball where you can’t let one missed shot affect whether you take the next one — that might win you the game; in clinical trials, 那里的挫折几乎和成功一样多, 进步的关键是韧性和希望. 如果你愿意冒险, 你可以去爬山, 你可以继续前进, you can bring new medicines and you can maybe succeed in a setting where someone else was too afraid to fail.

作为科学家, we learn early on that when an experiment does not deliver the results we were expecting, 这不应该使澳门葡京赌博游戏气馁——它应该激励澳门葡京赌博游戏去学习. 澳门葡京赌博游戏可以选择失望, 或者澳门葡京赌博游戏可以选择被激励, because every unexpected result has the potential to give us more insight into the problem and lead to an answer. That resilience and hope that drives researchers in oncology is like the hope that sustains patients with cancer, 这是我每天都铭记在心的事情.

胃肠道恶性肿瘤是最难治疗的癌症之一, so every step toward more effective treatments that increase quality of life or survival is a meaningful one that brings hope to this community. As we continue to investigate the safety and efficacy of our novel therapies, 澳门葡京赌博游戏提醒自己,每一次实验, every shot we take and every outcome — even if it is not the outcome we were expecting — brings us new insight, 从而使澳门葡京赌博游戏离改善病人的生活更近了一步.

约翰的故事是澳门葡京赌博游戏正在进行的系列节目的一部分: 肿瘤学的开拓者, which spotlights colleagues on the AstraZeneca 肿瘤学 team who are making an impact, 无论是个人还是职业.