ITOR Vision
To be an international destination center that develops and delivers innovative, personalized cancer therapies
The quest to win the war against cancer and save lives is the ultimate objective of the Institute for Translational Oncology Research (ITOR) of Greenville Health System (GHS).
 ITOR is located on GHS' Greenville Memorial Medical Campus |
With a focus on translational research and personalized medicine, ITOR of GHS provides some of the most advanced cancer treatments available anywhere in the world while supporting industry's crucial need to achieve greater efficiency and expediency in bringing life-saving cancer drugs to patients. The effort to advance these goals led to the creation of ITOR - an evolutionary process that began in 2004.
ITOR is a major pillar of translational cancer research at Greenville Health System. The efforts of ITOR include a phase I Clinical Research Unit, a Biorepository Services platform, and proteomics & genomics capabilities.
ITOR advances cancer care on multiple levels, facilitating pioneering research as well as clinical care delivery. ITOR is committed to "Translational" medicine, which is a branch of medical research that forges a direct link between basic research and patient care. In the case of drug therapies, translational medicine refers to the "translation" of basic research into beneficial drug treatments for patients.
ITOR focuses on discovering and developing drugs that help people who have cancer.
ITOR is physically located on GHS' Greenville Memorial Medical Campus in Greenville, South Carolina USA. The ITOR vision and missions also support the vision of Greenville Health System: To transform health care for the benefit of the people and communities we serve.
As part of a major hospital system and the developing GHS Regional Cancer Center of Excellence, ITOR brings together comprehensive and complementary cancer care services, technologies, and facilities under one umbrella. ITOR collaborates with innovative, global partners and strives to make available life-enhancing, personalized cancer medicine to patients throughout the country in the most efficient, effective, and expeditious manner.
ITOR Missions
- Achieve the most efficient translation of basic science into the clinical investigation of cancer care
- Discover and develop clinically meaningful molecular and genomic markers with prognostic and predictive capabilities
- Create an environment in which to educate and train medical professionals in translational and personalized medicine
Ultimately, ITOR represents the continuum of translational medicine - and a new model of hope in the war against cancer.
While modest advances continue to be made in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancers, in order to effectively and rapidly transfer basic science data and discovery into meaningful clinical benefit, it is ITOR's belief that the existing culture of cancer research must place more value and emphasis on translational and clinical research.
As such, ITOR aspires to be one of the country's leaders in the fulfillment of an unprecedented translational research model of the future - through its unique vision, capabilities, consortia of expert partners, and focus on diagnostic and therapeutic treatments of cancer.
An ultimate goal is to help develop breakthroughs in rapid drug development and accompanying diagnostic discovery through new cutting-edge business models and emerging technologies - including genomic profiling of cancer tumors and the design of clinical trials utilizing known targets that are expressed, versus disease specific, in order to achieve true personalized medicine - ultimately advancing cancer care for patients.
ITOR's commitment to this proposition will be achieved in part through translational research initiatives undertaken in partnership with fellow collaborators.
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Developing new drugs quickly that are safe and effective requires integration & collaboration with major research universities, pharmaceutical companies, private sector corporations, and the government. In addition to highly skilled clinical and research experts, ITOR and its extended team of integrated partners have programs with access to large patient populations and screening criteria. By unifying GHS' ITOR Clinical Research Unit & Biorepository Services (tissue banking initiative) with the capabilities of the Cancer Centers of the Carolinas and its patient base - and forming alliances with collaborators equally committed to fighting this disease in new and innovative ways - ITOR offers real hope to those facing a cancer diagnosis.
Another strategic goal of ITOR is to speed access to promising new drugs by accelerating early phase clinical trials. Current models are extraordinarily lengthy and exorbitantly costly, requiring multiple years and hundreds of millions of dollars in order to get an approved drug to a patient (from thousands of compounds). ITOR is committed to creating a new model of efficiency by teaming-up with pharmaceutical companies to hasten the delivery of patient-specific therapies - continually focused on targeting the right drug to the right patient as quickly as possible.
Additionally, ITOR and its extended expert team is committed to finding ways to achieve earlier prediction of drug success, identification of new applications and patients for existing drugs, and integration of advanced molecular and gene-based technologies into diagnostic and treatment medications.
Ultimately, ITOR engages alliances that facilitate pioneering research as well as clinical care delivery - focusing on personalized medicine with therapies that target the right drug to the right patients.
ITOR is a window to the future of cancer care - representing a true continuum of translational medicine, and serving as a leader in the mission to transform health care and the lives of patients.