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Cancer is a complex disease with increasing incidence in the Mexican population. This increase is the result of, among other factors, the increase in life expectancy because more individuals are reaching an age where the frequency of malignant diseases increases. That is why it is necessary to improve and utilize preventive, diagnostic and treatment tools that are on hand for our population. Translational research plays a crucial role in prevention and treatment of cancer. In researchers’ eagerness to classify all of their activities, scientific research related to human health has been divided into basic research, which is performed in cellular models or animal species other than human beings, and clinical research, in which the study model is a group of people or patients. The former is performed in laboratories, while the latter is generally conducted in hospitals. Nevertheless, one cannot realistically be separated from the other. Thus, the term “translational research” was coined to describe research that translates and transfers the knowledge generated in the laboratory towards use in the clinical environment for the diagnosis, treatment, prognosis or prevention of human diseases. Although this concept is not new, as advances in medicine have been based on the knowledge generated by careful observation of the patient as well as experimentation, the current state of knowledge in all branches of cellular biology offers a different and deeper understanding of the physiopathology of diseases. Now, it is possible to determine the effects of specific proteins and their variants, whether these proteins have been generated by genetic polymorphisms or by translational or post-translational changes, in susceptibility to cancer or response to treatment.

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2010-06-15   |   565 visitas   |   Evalua este artículo 0 valoraciones

Vol. 61 Núm.6. Noviembre-Diciembre 2009 Pags. 451-453 Rev Invest Clin 2009; 61(6-ENGLISH)