OOTR Investigator's Meeting was held on 19 February 2009 at Mandarin Oriental in Macau. Dr. Louis Chow, Honorary Clinical Professor of the University of Hong Kong and Executive Director of OOTR, welcomed investigators from different countries to meet and discuss the progress of existing clinical trials and the design of potential research projects. Dr. Shinji Ohno from National Kyushu Cancer Center has shared with us the importance and possible future impacts of OOTR-N003 clinical trial. Professor Sasano from Tohoku University School of Medicine was also invited to give a lecture on tissue handling from biopsy or surgery and the histopathological evaluation after pre-operative chemotherapy. Dr. Masakazu Toi, Kyoto University and President of OOTR, chaired a discussion about translational research – how to proceed from here.

In the beginning, Dr. Chow and Dr. Ohno have shared the progress of OOTR-N001 and OOTR-N003 trials respectively. Both trials are expected to finish recruitment in 2009. Dr. Chow has emphasized the importance of a final analysis on the pathologic complete response rate and the toxicity profile of the Phase II trial. Patients having received pre-operative chemotherapy plus celecoxib were not observed of any cardiotoxicity up till now, but the final result would give a better conclusion. As for OOTR-N003 trial, Dr. Ohno has compared the trial to different global studies of similar regimen. He underlined the importance of the randomized trial to answer questions about the dosage, schedule, efficacy and safety of docetaxel plus capecitabine in neo-adjuvant setting.

In the light of evolution of translational medicine which highlights the concepts of bench-to-bedside and bedside-to-bench, deciphering of cancer signals is essential to develop individualized treatment. Tissue specimen provides important information which makes procedures from surgical biopsy to histolopathological assessment become critical from a research perspective. Prof. Sasano delivered an important message to translational research team comprising surgeons, oncologists and pathologists: badly skilled biopsy would give inaccurate pathological diagnosis which in turn offers incorrect assessment of therapy response and, subsequently, imprecise prognostic evaluation. Most importantly, the contaminated research would lead to bad clinical practice. Collection and storage of high-quality cancer tissues from patients are highly demanded for OOTR’s trials.

Where could we proceed from now in translational research? Dr. Toi led the discussion among OOTR investigators in the meeting. Predictive and Prognostic markers are key issues in cancer therapeutics. Dr. Toi, Dr. Chow and Prof. Sasano have commented on the necessity and the potential ways to explore further in the realm of molecular biology. Translational research for novel markers would be the research focus to transit the conventional chemotherapy to individualized therapy. To succeed, translational researchers need to understand the importance of clinical tissue samples. Dr. Chow, in the last session, shared some ideas on new translational research projects and a secondary prevention study. Exchange of views among OOTR investigators has together built in some ideas on the proposals which are going to carry out soon. (Summarized by Adrian Yip, OOTR)