Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection: Translational Research

Interview with Robert Bast, MD
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Reflecting on the Moon Shots Program

"… [T]he Moon Shots have been controversial, but I think that that’s one of the most important things that’s happened at MD Anderson in the last twenty years.  ….[I]t’s Ron’s [DePinho] unique personality and vision that said, you know—deliver…. [L]et’s find things that can be done in the next five years that are going to change the status of practice ….to change how we care for patients, or change the statistics for cancer….. [T]here aren’t very many places like MD Anderson on the planet.  And to challenge us to do that was a very important thing to do….. [T]he Moon Shot experiment is just extraordinary, and I think it’s beginning to pay off."  

Interview with William Daigneau
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Building for translational research

"...And at the time, there was just an emerging field called translational research, where you’re taking things out of the basic science side and trying to create medications or treatment protocols that you could actually use in patient care, and that was kind of the stepping stone between the basic research to the actual protocol, or practice, in health care. That was emerging, and Anderson, frankly, over the years, had been—bench to bedside—had been pretty innovative, especially on radiation. So there was a culture that had been created as well as evolving. I mean, Dr. [R. Lee] Clark started it when he demanded research to be combined with the tumor hospital. He wanted to understand what was causing this and treat it.

So that whole culture at Anderson had been, from its earliest years, started, and it was growing. So at the time, they needed another research building and an animal facility to support the clinical side. That’s where the name came from—the Clinical Research Building. It was more to support some of the translational research that was going on..." 

Interview with Louise Villejo
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Taking the lead with a Patient Education Center

"…MD Anderson was the first comprehensive cancer center to have an organized patient education program.  And so I think it says a lot about the support that we’ve gotten from the beginning from the leadership here at MD Anderson…

I think that they saw the importance of communications with patients, and patients, to be more involved in their care, needed to know more about their disease and treatment.  …[I]t’s just ironic that now it’s mandated through Joint Commission and AHRQ and all these organizations, even when you’re writing a grant you have to have patient involvement.  But MD Anderson I think was way ahead of the curve because … our program is really informed by patients and family members…. [W]e’ve always done focus groups with patients and family members when we’re developing resources and have them evaluate materials…[T]he difference now is that they’re much more involved in a lot of the processes here....

So it’s going to be tremendous as we integrate them into everything that we do.  Who better could give us feedback on the best way to improve the patient experience?  So exciting times."