Boston University School of Medicine

Boston, MA. Team Draft will be touring the Boston University School of Medicine and talking with the Director of the Cancer Center, Dr. Douglas Faller about the research that The Cancer Center is doing. Dr. Faller has a PHD from MIT and a Medical Degree from Harvard.

The BU Cancer Center research activities are organized into three Programs: two programs are translationally based (T1 Translational Cancer Research Program and the Hormone-Responsive Cancers Research Program) and one program is population-based (Cancer Prevention and Control in Diverse Populations). Investigators in different research programs collaborate extensively, allowing greater opportunity for interdisciplinary and translational research.

The Cancer Prevention and Control in Diverse Populations Program goals are to improve the scientific bases of cancer control, especially in understudied populations; study methods of promoting equity of access, treatment, and outcomes of health care for people with cancer and people at risk for cancer; and develop and evaluate strategies to reduce disparities in the incidence, prevalence, and burden of cancer and related adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups.

The Hormone-Responsive Cancers Research Program focuses on basic and translational research directed toward endocrine-responsive tumors, particularly breast cancer and prostate cancer. These diseases in particular represent significant cancer disparities for black populations, with significantly higher incidence in the case of prostate cancer, and significantly higher mortality rates for both cancers.
Members of this program study hormone signaling in normal and malignant cells, the role of micronutrients in cancer cell proliferation, mechanisms by which environmental toxins induce malignancy, and mechanisms of metastasis and progression, among other areas of research.

The members of the T1 Translational Cancer Research Program focus their research on the processes involved in the mechanisms initiating malignancy and underlying malignant cell growth and metastases, and the identification of target molecules and development of targeted therapeutics.

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