Almost two months ago, Trinity and St James’s Hospital announced their intention to progress with a new cancer institute, representing a renewed effort to develop new treatments for the disease. It is hoped the new institute will deliver substantially improved outcomes for patients by providing research-led diagnosis and treatment, by promoting a better understanding of cancer through interdisciplinary research and by educating the next generation of cancer clinicians, allied health professionals and scientists engaged in cancer research.
The institute follows from the development of Trinity “Research Themes” led by John O’Leary, as well as a superpanel review exercise completed last year, which highlighted cancer as a key research theme and acknowledged that many elements of a hypothetical cancer institute are already in existence, with Trinity performing particularly well in the areas of cancer immunology, cancer genetics and immunotherapies.
Speaking to The University Times on the development of the institute, Professor of Haematology and Head of the School of Medicine, Paul Browne, said “that at some point you either make a pitch and say it’s going to progress or you don’t, and I think this time there was sufficient support and commitment at various levels, including a welcome from the Minister for Health”.
The next phase in the project will be the formation of a Development Group led by an independent chair chosen by Provost Patrick Prendergast and the CEO of St James’s. The group will put together a formal business plan for the institute, detailing its governance and business model. A lot of work has been done on the hospital and clinical side already in mapping out key areas of strengths, but bringing it all together will be a challenge and is where the development group will focus.
The ultimate aim is a new building, in the hope that it would “genuinely bring together university activity, Trinity’s activity in research development and education with cancer, or part of that activity with the clinical and get something more”. A site for the building on the St James’s campus has already been identified.
Once completed, the proposal will be submitted to the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) for accreditation. The OECI is a relatively new organisation tasked with bringing together cancer research and care institutions in Europe to create a mass of expertise to help implement the best models of cancer care and improve the quality of life for patients in Europe.
The initial assessment by the OECI will be based on a “virtual organ”, highlighting the key areas in which Trinity and James’s are performing well, as well as the board-approved governance strategies and business plans presented by the Development Group. Trinity were fortunate this year to host the International Cancer Conference, and were lucky to have a very senior member of the OECI present, meaning that Trinity engaged with them much earlier than other institutions would have.
Should the OECI membership application be successful, the new institute would join 78 other institutions across Europe, and become the first OECI accredited cancer institute in Ireland.
According to Browne, accreditation by such a body will be extremely important for the institute going forward, considering the challenge the institute has in “convincing the government ultimately that additional capital investment is appropriate for the development of the new institute”. That, he said, “will absolutely require comparison to other such programmes in the UK and in Europe. Having some external recognition with this type of organisation is very helpful with that”.
Cambridge University is one institute which recently received accreditation by the OECI and is going through the second stage of developing a new building.
Browne is “hopeful that the OECI application will be a success” but acknowledged that you “can’t necessarily anticipate what will happen – that’s why we’re already working so closely with the OECI, we were delighted they agreed to send over a very senior person to participate in our cancer conference to outline the issue”. The OECI is seen as a step that would help in defining the institute internationally and externally.
“The idea is that you work through the process in the expectation of getting a good outcome and they take a constructive approach to that so you’re sent a large amount of information well in advance so you have an idea of what’s required and what isn’t.”
The development of a number of new professorships will come alongside the institute. Interviews for many of these have just been completed and are awaiting further progression. One such position is a Professorship in Translational Oncology, which is a medical academic appointment between Trinity, St James’s and the HSE for a person who will take the lead on particular aspects of cancer research and clinical cancer research. There is also the proposal for a Professorship in Cancer Nursing and a number of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)-funded professorships in different cancer areas.
Browne also indicated the development of other posts at different levels, mentioning the Ussher process in particular as a useful step in appointing a number of strategic posts in cancer research, including positions in genomics, oncology and nanomedicine.
With the new institute comes the possibility of new teaching opportunities. Trinity already has a number of well-respected initiatives in different aspects of cancer education, such as the master’s in translational oncology. With a coherent institute “you could develop new programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level that are multi and interdisciplinary, cutting across different boundaries that would focus on different aspects related to cancer. That’s one of the good opportunities that this would present”.
The development of the institute will provide a focal point for a number of activities that have been ongoing in Trinity for a number of years. The institute will be used to “leverage or try and get more than the normal value out the activities that Trinity would be engaged in anyway”.
While a number of steps must be followed before a new building materialises, “standing up and saying at least this is what our plans are and our intention is”, is a major step. Engagement with the OECI is key as it’s a recognised benchmark which is important, as is the development of a business plan for working with the government and government funders and philanthropy to support the institute as it becomes a reality.
The National Cancer Strategy is due to be published in the coming weeks and is being led by John Kennedy, a Trinity Professor of Medicine. On the announcement of the institute, Minister for Health, Simon Harris, alluded to the National Cancer Strategy, and it seems an initiative like this would be welcome “and would so to speak, support the cancer strategy”.
