) UCSD Cancer Center's proposed Palliative Care Program consists of 18 Members, representing total peer-reviewed funding of $2,745,276 in annual direct costs. During the last year, its Members were responsible for a total of 67 cancer-relevant, peer-reviewed publications, 36% of which were intra- and inter-programmatic collaborations. There are two wings of this Program, a pain group and a psychobiology group. While there are distinct differences in the focus of these groups, there are also numerous links, which make their mutual association beneficial. For instance, the groups have very tangible common interests in clinical research, (e.g. the interplay of pain, fatigue, depression, stress). This Program brings to bear both basic and clinical research on mitigating the anguish associated with cancer. That anguish can be experienced as pain, depression, debilitating fatigue, and poor quality of life. Of course, the cancer patients themselves a re the main beneficiaries of this research on palliation, but their families also bear a burden, and thus some of our research also focuses explicitly on the caregivers of cancer patients. There is an enormous array of research topics in this field; ones of special interest to the UCSD Center include: recognizing and treating emerging psychiatric disorders such as depression in cancer patients and their spouses; improving the diagnosis of the etiology of cancer pain syndromes; developing more efficacious pharmacologies and regimens for pain relief; relieving fatigue and improving quality of life in cancer patients; combating the physiologic effects of stress on cancer patients and their families. All of the proposed investigators are UCSD faculty who are new to the Cancer Center. They are well-funded by extensive peer reviewed grants and have a long history of collaborations within their respective research groups and with investigators throughout the medical school. While their current research is not directly cancer related, it is centered on studies at the interface between anesthesiology, medicine, and psychiatry and is directly relevant to the affective and symptomatic distress experienced by Cancer patients. The launching of this new Program reflects the UCSD Cancer Center's commitment to conduct high quality translational research which directly addresses patient concerns.
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