Dr John Crown awarded research chair by Dublin City University
13 November 2003

Professor John Crown and Professor Martin Clynes

Dr John Crown, a consultant medical oncologist with St Vincent's University Hospital and St Luke's/St Anne's Hospital in Dublin has been awarded the Thomas Baldwin Research Chair in Translational Cancer Research from Dublin City University. Translational research is the link from "bench to bedside" and the significance of this chair is that it creates a bridge between basic scientific research such as that carried out in the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology (NICB) at DCU and clinical treatment such as that conducted by Dr Crown and his team at St Vincent's.

Dr Crown is internationally recognised for his progressive research into improving the effects of chemotherapy dosage on cancer patients. Last year he received a merit award from the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) for his work in breast cancer research. He is the first Irish oncologist to have received such recognition.

From his base in St Vincent's Hospital, Dr Crown has been working with scientists at the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at DCU for four years. In 1997 the DCU scientists discovered that a standard prescription painkilling drug can help to make chemotherapy more effective in some cancers that have become resistant to such treatment, through a mechanism unrelated to the painkilling effect. This painkilling drug, termed a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), is most commonly used in the treatment of arthritis and sports injuries. However, the gap between scientific discovery in a university laboratory and general use for the successful treatment of patients is enormous and can only be bridged through carefully supervised and regulated trials in a hospital setting. In 2001 Dr Crown embarked on a phase one clinical trial to test the treatment reaction in patients rather than simply on cancer cells in lab-based experiments. Although not uncommon in the US, it has historically been unusual in Ireland for this kind of research to be developed in a laboratory and "translated" into an Irish hospital.

The aim of the initial trial was to identify what were the maximum dosages that could be used safely in the cancer sufferer. The selection of patients at first trial stage in any research programme is done carefully and with a great deal of sensitivity. Patients in this group will be at an advanced stage of their illness and conventional treatments will have been unsuccessful. During the St Vincent's/DCU trial they were given combinations of painkilling and chemotherapy drugs and their reactions monitored. Results have been very encouraging for this stage of the trial process with a small number of patients unexpectedly going in to remission from their illness. Dr Crown is applying to the Irish Medicines Board, the agency, which regulates all clinical trials in Ireland, to progress the research to phase two. This second phase of the testing process will utilise the safe doses established in phase one in a larger group of patients to examine the full anti-cancer potential of the laboratory finding in real human cancer patients. Translational research, such as this, does not produce an all-encompassing cure. Most scientists and clinicians now agree that there is unlikely to be a "magic" cure for cancer, as each form of the disease has its own distinct properties. For example, breast cancer in one patient may be different to breast cancer in another and leukaemia is a very different disease to lung cancer. Instead translational research aims to tailor treatments to people depending on the likely response of their disease and the reaction of their body and the cancer to the drugs available. The value to society of this approach is that it tries to transform the fundamental knowledge about cancer that scientists provide into medical applications that doctors can use to improve treatment for patients, while simultaneously trying to educate scientist as to how cancer responds in human beings.

The award recognises the huge contribution of Dr Crown and his colleagues to furthering the cause of cancer treatment in Ireland and the specific contribution to the cancer research effort of researchers in Dublin City University. The professorship will also support ambitious translational cancer research plans that are currently emerging from the clinic and laboratory. Dr Crown is very interested in advancing the link between scientists and clinicians and intends teaching on specific academic programmes at DCU. There are currently two doctors from St Vincent's on exchange to DCU and Dr Crown hopes to foster further exchange between the two organisations. Cancer is one of the main health areas covered by the Faculty of Science and Health at DCU. The university is developing a multidisciplinary approach to cancer ranging from research into understanding the biological basis of the disease, through drug design, to medical analysis, nursing, health interventions and health promotion.

Professor John Crown

John Crown
John Crown, MD, is a consultant medical oncologist with St Vincent's University Hospital and St Luke's/St Anne's Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Professor Crown received his medical training at the University College Dublin and the State University of New York. After his internship and internal medicine training, he completed postdoctoral training on both sides of the Atlantic, including registrars in gastroenterology and general medicine at Guy's Hospital in London and in haematology at St. James's Hospital in Dublin. He completed his fellowship training in oncology at Mount Sinai Medical Center and inhaematology/oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, both in New York. Prof Crown also served as assistant professor at Cornell University Medical College before joining St. Vincent's in 1993. In November 2003 he was awarded the Thomas Baldwin Research Chair in Translational Cancer Research from Dublin City University.

Prof Crown is a founding member and leader of many organisations, including the Irish Clinical Oncology Research Group, the Anglo-Celtic Oncology Group, the European Breast Cancer Dose Intensity Study, and the Irish Society of Medical Oncology. He also holds memberships in the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the New York Metropolitan Breast Cancer Group, and the European Society of Medical Oncology. He also is Chairman of the Breast Committee of the Irish Clinical Oncology Research Group (ICORG).

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