Cancer Research

Dr. Michael Harris, Director, Tomorrows Children's Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center

New Jersey is at the forefront of cancer research and treatment. Many of the world’s major pharmeceutical companies are headquartered here. So is The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, one of thirty-nine comprehensive cancer centers in the nation. Researchers are working on cancer gene therapy and on drugs that cut off the blood supply to tumors. They’re developing cancer vaccines. It’s all part of a quiet revolution in the way scientists, and therefore doctors, look at cancer. Video Clip

“When we started to look at this (clinical trials) in the early 1960’s, meaning me and my fore-fathers, we realized that we should work with radiological therapists, chemotherapists and surgeons to be able to cure cancer. And what has happened with children being put on clinical trials and recommended to one trial after another, was that we were able to change the cure rate from 30% to 75%.”