Translational Cancer Research: Balancing Prevention and Treatment to Combat Cancer Globally

Cancer research is drawing on the human genome project to develop new molecular-targeted treatments. This is an exciting but insufficient response to the growing, global burden of cancer, particularly as the projected increase in new cases in the coming decades is increasingly falling on developing countries. The world is not able to treat its way out of the cancer problem. However, the mechanistic insights from basic science can be harnessed to better understand cancer causes and prevention, thus underpinning a complementary public health approach to cancer control. This manuscript focuses on how new knowledge about the molecular and cellular basis of cancer, and the associated high-throughput laboratory technologies for studying those pathways, can be applied to population-based epidemiological studies, particularly in the context of large prospective cohorts with associated biobanks to provide an evidence base for cancer prevention. This integrated approach should allow a more rapid and informed translation of the research into educational and policy interventions aimed at risk reduction across a population

Mixed messages in iron oxide-copper-gold systems of the Cloncurry district, Australia: insights from PIXE analysis of halogens and copper in fluid inclusions

Proterozoic rocks of the Cloncurry district in NW Queensland, Australia, are host to giant (tens to hundreds of square kilometers) hydrothermal systems that include (1) barren regional sodic–calcic alteration, (2) granite-hosted hydrothermal complexes with magmatic–hydrothermal transition features, and (3) iron oxide–copper–gold (IOCG) deposits. Fluid inclusion microthermometry and proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) show that IOCG deposits and the granite-hosted hydrothermal complexes contain abundant high temperature, ultrasaline, complex multisolid (type 1) inclusions that are less common in the regional sodic–calcic alteration. The latter is characterized by lower salinity three-phase halite-bearing (type 2) and two-phase (type 3) aqueous inclusions. Copper contents of the type 1 inclusions (>300 ppm) is higher than in type 2 and 3 inclusions (<300 ppm), and the highest copper concentrations (>1,000 ppm) are found both in the granite-hosted systems and in inclusions with Br/Cl ratios that are consistent with a magmatic source. The Br/Cl ratios of the inclusions with lower Cu contents are consistent with an evaporite-related origin. Wide ranges in salinity and homogenization temperatures for fluid inclusions in IOCG deposits and evidence for multiple fluid sources, as suggested by halogen ratios, indicate fluid mixing as an important process in IOCG genesis. The data support both leaching of Cu by voluminous nonmagmatic fluids from crustal rocks, as well as the direct exsolution of Cu-rich fluids from magmas. However, larger IOCG deposits may form from magmatic-derived fluids based on their higher Cu content