2024 RCRP Vignette

Encouraging Multi-Institution Collaboration Across Cancer Types Video (Text Version)

LTC Brett Theeler, MD, Chair, Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Description: Under the direction of the CDMRP, the Rare Cancer Research Program supports research of rare cancers that impact the 18- to 39- year olds who make up the majority of the active-duty military population. LTC Brett Theeler, M.D., of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, explains how patient advocates keep the programs grounded in what's important to the patient, their experience, how patients are going to feel and think about emerging new cancer protocols.

Transcript:

The Rare Cancer Research Program is part of our covenant to take care of active-duty Service Members and their Families. By supporting our research in some of the rarest cancers. Many rare cancers happen in that adolescent and young adult population that is covered by this funding mechanism.

The fourth leading cause of cancer-related death amongst active-duty Service Members is actually brain cancer. And that's a rare cancer. The cancers that affect 18- to 39-year-olds, which makes up the majority of the active-duty population, those are not typical cancers. So the rare cancer research program funds many of those rare cancers that occur in young adults that don't get funded elsewhere.

There's really an epidemiologic definition that cancers have to meet to be considered rare. But really, after that criteria is met, it really can be any cancer that's considered rare. So, brain cancer, blood cancer, sarcoma, are just a few of the many cancers that have already been funded by this mechanism.

Rare cancers are so diverse. I just can't tell you how helpful it is to have a diverse programmatic panel that's going over each of these grant applications to give important perspective on what is, or what is not, important in a particular proposal, in a particular cancer type. There are some studies that are very much looking at the very earliest stages of a discovery in a rare disease, looking at biology and the etiology of disease, that can be very impactful in a rare cancer. In other instances, if perhaps if there is more mature information or experience with a rare disease, it's really moving towards therapeutics; and so is this research identifying a novel or new target that could be carried forward in the clinic?

I think it’s one of the strengths of the RCRP mechanism of having patient advocates as a part of the programmatic panels. I can tell you from personal experience the advocates bring something you really cannot replace, in these panels. As a clinician, I'm very focused on how this is going to get into the clinic. The patient advocates repeatedly bring us back to what's important to the patient, what's important for the patient's experience, how patients are going to feel and perceive this particular protocol.

One of the things that I think we are most proud of as a group, is that we have created a brand new funding mechanism, the RCDA, the Resource and Community Development Award, which is an award that funds shareable resources across large cancer populations, with intimate involvement of patient advocates.

No one physician, no one group will see enough of these patients to be able to perform large scale research, right? And so you have to avoid the silos that form, and we really believe that our funding mechanisms, especially the RCDA, encourages multi-institution collaboration.

Sometimes the military relevance of a mechanism like the RCRP can be hard to see. We're not talking about trauma on the battlefield, you know, we're not talking about exposure to chemical or biological weapons, things that have a very obvious military link. Our Service Members are exposed to very unique situations and environments that the general public is not exposed to. And I really want to believe that by funding rare cancer research, we are preparing the research world to do research on the rare cancers of the future that may be specific to active-duty Service Members.