Partnerships and Outreach
Collaborative Cancer Research Between Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) and the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i (CRCH)
Carl-Wilhelm Vogel, MD, PhD, Principal Investigator

Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC), the large military hospital serving Hawai‘i and the entire Asia Pacific Region, and the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i (CRCH), an NCI-designated cancer center at the University of Hawai‘i, initiated a cancer research partnership in 2006 to foster basic and clinical research collaboration between TAMC and CRCH with emphasis on topics of military relevance, to provide enhanced research opportunities for residents in postgraduate training at TAMC, and to share scientific expertise and infrastructure at the two institutions. The TAMC/CRCH partnership consists of infrastructure support cores and research projects. The Clinical Research Core provides the necessary personnel and logistical support to conduct cancer clinical trials. The Molecular Oncology Core provides essential expertise and instrumentation to support joint research projects. Services include real time quantitative RT-PCR, genome-wide microarray data acquisition and analysis, genotyping and array-based cycle genetic analysis, chemical synthesis and analysis of new compounds, screening of natural products for anti-metastatic activity, laser confocal scanning microscopy, biostatistics and bioinformatics consultation, and a fresh-frozen tumor tissue repository. Ongoing collaborative research projects include: 1) the identification of structural features of the fungal metabolite terpestacin that determine its anti-angiogenic activity; 2) investigation of the role of the H-Ras oncogene on extracellular matrix proteins and tumor metastasis; 3) investigation of the role of c-Src mediated phosphorylation of connexin43 on the functionality of gap junctions in colon carcinoma cells and its effect on cancer cell motility, invasive abilities, and tumor angiogenic properties; 4) a behavioral research project that develops and tests a web-based intervention to impact health behaviors for cancer survivors.

The Clinical Research Core has been fully staffed and is functional as evidenced by a significant shortening of the time for processing of protocols, the number of new protocols initiated, and number of cancer patients enrolled. The Molecular Oncology Core is fully operational and actively involved in supporting the research and training activities. All research projects have made significant progress.

Our experience demonstrates that a collaborative partnership between a large military hospital and an NCI-designated cancer center can make meaningful research contributions by combining their respective expertise, with particular benefits for military patients. Our partnership may serve as a model for other collaborations between military health facilities and cancer centers to have greater impact on military related research, cancer care, and quality of life. The TAMC/CRCH partnership is supported by DOD contract W81XWH-06-2-0042 to CRCH with a subcontract to TAMC. In addition, both institutions support this partnership with additional discretionary and/or in kind resources.