From Basic Concepts to Clinical Applications

The new Gordon Research Conference on "Cancer Nanotechnology" will allow for further development of a multi-disciplinary research community representing a broad range of disciplines including biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, medicine, and regulatory affairs and supporting the new field of cancer nanotechnology. The ultimate goal of the conference will be to accelerate implementation of nanotechnology innovations into cancer research and its clinical practice.

Cancer is a complex disease. In contrast to dramatic reversals in death rates from heart disease, stroke, and infectious disease during the past 50 years, the death rate from cancer has declined only marginally over the past several decades. This occurred, despite high level of efforts in both basic research and the development of new clinical treatments. It can be argued that, non-traditional, paradigm shifting ideas and approaches are needed in order to improve this unfortunate trend. In recent years, nanotechnology has emerged as a "disruptive technology" with a potential to generate new diagnostic and therapeutic products and as a result improve cancer outcomes. Novel and multi-functional nanodevices could be capable of detecting cancer at its earliest stages, delivering anticancer drugs specifically to malignant cells, and determining if these drugs are effective. Functionalized nanoparticles could deliver multiple therapeutic agents to tumor sites in order to simultaneously attack multiple points in the pathways involved in cancer. Several of these concepts have been already demonstrated in academic laboratories and are gradually finding their ways into translational world.

The field of cancer nanotechnology is unique. It combines disparate research communities of physical scientists, engineers, and technologists working at the nanoscale with cancer biologists and oncologists specializing in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer. It is common that implementation of new technology discoveries into medical world occurs only when these technologies mature and final medical product is developed. This sequential approach is detrimental to overall progress, but often persists since academic discovery still occurs largely in the single-discipline departments. The recent efforts of funding agencies and academic institutions have centered around the development of multi-disciplinary programs and institutes attempting to break these single-discipline barriers and house scientists representing several fields in one location to work on hard problems together. For example, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has founded the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer - the network of large academic centers performing basic and translational cancer research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is in the process of constructing David Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology has been established in Singapore.

It is clear that establishing the regular discussion forum for the scientists and clinicians working in cancer nanotechnology will be highly beneficial. The model of Gordon Research Conferences, providing forums for the presentation and discussion of frontier, multi-disciplinary research, is ideal. Because of the lack of a common language among the scientists from so many different fields, longer meetings with large blocks of time dedicated to discussions, rather than series of presentations held at 'traditional' conferences, are favored for establishing such forum.