3 minute read
Meet Associate Professor Arun Azad
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.
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. 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
Our translational research program is most advanced currently for ENZAMET, where Professor Lisa Horvath, Professor James Kench and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHRMC) Clinical Trials Centre (CTC) are driving the central collection of samples.
ANZUP has a detailed research plan built around analysis of tissue and blood samples, and an outstanding multi-national team of investigators to conduct cutting-edge research. We will adopt a similar approach for the TheraP trial, which has an invaluable collection of serial plasma samples collected.
“As always, we are grateful for the patients and families who enrol on our trials and donate biospecimens that support our translational research. We could not conduct our activities without these highquality samples. We would also like to acknowledge the participating sites thoroughness in obtaining correlative samples from our ANZUP trials. Bio-specimen collection continues as part of existing trials, including ENZA-p and DASL-HiCaP BCGMM, P3BEP, KEYPAD, UNISoN and PCR-MIB.”
A/Prof Arun Azad Biospecimen collection for ANZUP’s ENZAMET and ENZARAD trials
People who participated in the ENZAMET and ENZARAD trials were asked to consent to the collection of blood and tissue samples for the purpose of laboratory research. This will help us to greater understand why some types of prostate cancer behave differently, why some people respond better than others to treatment, and to help us work out ways to do better in the future.
Over 100,000 samples have been collected around the world through the ENZAMET and ENZARAD trials, and are in the process of being transported to the biobank at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse in Sydney. A comprehensive plan of research for these samples has been developed and will be rolled out soon.
If you would like to support our Translational Research Program please email donate@anzup.org.au.
THE CRYOBANK AT CHRIS O’BRIEN LIFEHOUSE WITH BIOSPECIMENS FROM ANZUP’S ENZAMET & ENZARAD TRIALS. KARENA PRYCE - TECHNICAL OFFICER CLINICAL TRIALS AT CHRIS O’BRIEN LIFEHOUSE (LEFT) & DR KATE MAHON - ANZUP MEMBER & DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL ONCOLOGY AT CHRIS O’BRIEN LIFEHOUSE (RIGHT).
