Meet Associate Professor Arun Azad Chair of ANZUP’s Translational Research Subcommittee
Associate Professor Arun Azad is a medical oncologist and translational researcher with a sub-specialist interest in prostate and urological cancers. He is Translational Research Subcommittee Chair at ANZUP Cancer Trials Group.
What is Translational Research? People often ask ‘what is translational research?” Traditionally, translational research was thought of as bench-to-bedside research, where findings were taken from the laboratory and applied in the clinic. Equally though, translational research can involve bedsideto-bench research, where we take samples from patients and profile them in the laboratory to better understand why patients do or do not benefit from treatment, and why treatment stops working (among many other questions of course). Translational research applies findings from basic science to enhance human health and well-being. Translational research takes a scientific enquiry that may be a given problem facing health care practices and then attempts to overcome the problem to help raise aggregate health performance. In a medical research context, it aims to “translate” findings in fundamental research into medical practice and meaningful health outcomes.
Patients who participate in ANZUP trials are asked to consent to the collection of blood and tissue samples to be used to conduct laboratory research for translational research and other studies in Australia and/or overseas. ANZUP has been extremely successful in a relatively short space of time with leading pivotal studies in urological cancers. The data from these studies has had a major impact on clinical practice, as best evidenced by a study such as ENZAMET which was a key factor in enzalutamide being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. This is a major milestone. At the same, another achievement we should recognise is the integration of translational research sample collection into virtually all ANZUP-sponsored trials, including the ENZAMET study. This provides us with a priceless opportunity to leverage the pivotal clinical trials we are doing, and help deliver better outcomes for those that matter most i.e. patients and their families.
“We (as in all of ANZUP) should feel very proud to be part of such major achievements”. A/Prof Arun Azad
Translational research implements a “bench-tobedside” approach. It progresses from laboratory experiments through clinical trials to point-of-care patient applications. Harnessing knowledge from basic sciences can lead to production of new drugs, devices, and treatment options for patients. The end point of translational research is the production of a promising new treatment that can be used with practical applications, to then be used clinically or even commercialised.
A LITTLE BELOW THE BELT 17
