A primer for academic entrepreneurs on academic-industrial partnerships.

Partnerships between academic investigators and industry can accelerate the translation of research findings into life-saving products. The healthcare industry has witnessed heightened interest from universities in capitalizing on the discoveries made by faculty to create intellectual property, form new companies and seek investments. However, academic investigators and even Biotechnology start-ups may be unfamiliar with how industry sources and evaluates these opportunities.

AACR White Paper: Shaping the Future of Cancer Prevention - A Roadmap for Advancing Science and Public Health.

The recent pace, extent, and impact of paradigm-changing cancer prevention science has been remarkable. The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) convened a 3-day summit, aligned with five research priorities: (i) Precancer Atlas (PCA). (ii) Cancer interception.

Disease Interception: Myths, Mountains, and Mole Hills.

Malignant diseases develop slowly over time and are often preceded by identifiable premalignancies. As malignancy progresses, so does genomic complexity and the ability of cancers to evade most therapeutic interventions. Accordingly, with some notable exceptions, a relatively low percentage of advanced cancers are effectively treated and even fewer are cured.

Transforming Cancer Prevention through Precision Medicine and Immune-oncology.

We have entered a transformative period in cancer prevention (including early detection). Remarkable progress in precision medicine and immune-oncology, driven by extraordinary recent advances in genome-wide sequencing, big-data analytics, blood-based technologies, and deep understanding of the tumor immune microenvironment (TME), has provided unprecedented possibilities to study the biology of premalignancy. The pace of research and discovery in precision medicine and immunoprevention has been astonishing and includes the following clinical firsts reported in 2015: driver mutations detected in circulating cell-free DNA in patients with premalignant lesions (lung); clonal hematopoiesis shown to be a premalignant state; molecular selection in chemoprevention randomized controlled trial (RCT; oral); striking efficacy in RCT of combination chemoprevention targeting signaling pathway alterations mechanistically linked to germline mutation (duodenum); molecular markers for early detection validated for lung cancer and showing promise for pancreatic, liver, and ovarian cancer.