翻译中的发现
Groundbreaking UNC research melds scientific lab work with real-world clinic to reveal benefits of exercise for cancer patients
Sitting in a small, instrument-packed lab in Ross Hall is a squat, benign-looking gray tank that contains liquid nitrogen. It also contains a spectrum of cancer cells 来自不同的线路. But this is one instance where cancer cells are helping make cancer 患者生活更美好. These cells are used in animal research that helps doctors understand exercise’s effect on cancer patients during and after chemotherapy treatment.
Across campus, at the UNC Cancer Rehabilitation Institute, that research is applied to real life, where cancer patients and survivors do cardio and resistance workouts to combat the effects of chemotherapy and cancer on their quality of life.
“This is translational research,” says Reid Hayward, Ph.D.他是研究所所长. “We use what we learn in the lab and apply it to real life, and take what we see in real life and try to replicate and address it in the lab.”
UNC’s groundbreaking work in cancer rehabilitation has led Hayward to Washington D.C., where he’s spoken to doctors at the National Institutes of Health, and to Memphis, where he’s twice given presentations to the teams at St. 裘德儿童研究中心 医院.
Hayward, who came to UNC in 1998 at the invitation of the institute’s founding director, the late Carole Schneider, shares an intense energy for the institute’s work with patients, researchers and students. It leads him to spend hours in the animal lab (in spite of allergies to rats) and sparks him to ask — and answer — 问题 about 运动与癌症.
An estimated 75 to 95 percent of cancer patients endure severe treatment side effects. Hayward explains that one side effect of a common chemo drug is cardiotoxicity, or 心脏衰竭. It can force patients to choose to either treat for cancer and deal with 心脏衰竭, or have a healthy heart but succumb to cancer. 接受挑战 to the lab, Hayward and his colleagues have shown that exercise during and after treatment 是心血管.
While presenting this information to doctors at St. 有人问海沃德裘德的事 the impact of exercise on children fighting cancer. 回到科罗拉多州，海沃德 headed to his lab, following rats from weaning through maturity to answer St. 裘德的 问题. He found that exercise significantly decreased risks of 心脏衰竭 as 幼鼠成熟.
Hayward and his colleagues have also studied the effects of exercise on patients with “chemo brain,” a side effect of treatment that impairs memory and cognitive function. They’ve looked at fatigue experienced by patients in order to understand and determine 最佳运动强度.
Hayward explains that what’s unique about UNC’s work with patients, students and research is that all three intersect in hands-on understanding. 这不是给予的问题 a patient a list of exercises to do on their own at home. 相反，这是一种交换 of custom adjustments, encouragement, understanding and inspiration that makes the 程序如此有效.
“The relationship between patients and students is palpable,” Hayward says. “想象一下 a 20-year-old invincible college student looking at a person who is facing death and is inspired by them, while the patient is inspired, witnessing a young person putting 他们的教育付诸实践. 我喜欢参与其中.”
That personal touch and customized, research-based approach is something Hayward hopes to see expand beyond UNC’s geographical boundaries. To extend the institute’s benefits, Hayward is developing a certification program through both on-campus workshops and 全球推广.
“We have people come from Asia for workshops, and we’re about to launch the certification 他说. “We’re having an impact on not just cancer survivors in our community, but all over the world.”
With the introduction of certification, Hayward is taking what rises from that small lab in Ross Hall to research that benefits cancer patients and survivors on a global 规模. It’s translational research in the truest sense.
——黛比·皮特纳·摩尔
