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From Bench to Bedside and Beyond

From Bench to Bedside and Beyond

By: Fred Hutch News team
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Stories from Fred Hutch Cancer Center about how our scientists and clinicians are combining innovative research with compassionate care to address the impact of cancer and infectious disease. You'll hear from patients, researchers, doctors, caregivers, supporters and others seeking to prevent and eliminate cancer.2025 Biological Sciences Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease Science
Episodes
  • A More Precise Way to Understand Tubo-Ovarian Cancer

    A More Precise Way to Understand Tubo-Ovarian Cancer
    Sep 14 2026
    In this episode of Bench to Bedside and Beyond, Diane Mapes talks with Fred Hutch Cancer Center and UW Medicine clinical researcher and gynecologic oncologist Dr. Elizabeth Swisher about research that may refine how scientists understand and treat tubo-ovarian cancer — and potentially help guide targeted treatment for some people with triple-negative breast cancer. Swisher explains why many cancers long called ovarian cancer begin in the fallopian tubes, why "tubo-ovarian cancer" is a more accurate term and how researchers are studying tumors' current biological vulnerabilities to better match patients with treatment options. The conversation also explores HRDefine, an investigational assay designed to identify the current causes of homologous recombination deficiency, or HRD, a tumor weakness that can make some cancers responsive to PARP inhibitors. Key takeaways Many cancers commonly called ovarian cancer begin in the fallopian tubes. Using the term tubo-ovarian cancer more accurately reflects where these cancers often originate and may inform future prevention and early-detection research. Homologous recombination deficiency, or HRD, is a weakness in how some tumor cells repair damaged DNA. That weakness can make certain tumors more responsive to PARP inhibitors. Swisher and colleagues developed HRDefine, an investigational assay designed to identify the current cause of HRD. It can examine BRCA1/2 and other gene changes, as well as methylation changes that can affect gene activity. Unlike older measures of HRD, which may continue to show a past vulnerability after a tumor has become resistant to treatment, HRDefine is designed to assess the tumor's current biology. The assay may help identify which patients are most likely to benefit from PARP inhibitors in tubo-ovarian cancer and, potentially, triple-negative breast cancer. It is still being validated in hundreds of samples before any broader clinical or commercial use. This work reflects a broader goal of precision oncology: matching treatment decisions to a tumor's biological features, not solely to the organ where the cancer began or to inherited genetic risk.
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    14 mins
  • Living with the long-term effects of prostate cancer, from sexual to spiritual

    Living with the long-term effects of prostate cancer, from sexual to spiritual
    Sep 2 2026
    In this episode of Bench to Bedside and Beyond, we talk to a 25-year prostate cancer survivor and the director of the new sexual health clinic at Fred Hutch about why it's important to include sexual health in the survivorship conversation. Prostate cancer survivor James DeLong and Kelly Nelson, director of Fred Hutch's new sexual health clinic, discuss how a cancer diagnosis can wreak havoc on a person's sex life—and how people no longer need to suffer in silence. Key takeaways:
    • The side effects of cancer treatment can make having a healthy sex life challenging.
    • For a long time, providers didn't commonly address issues such as low libido, vaginal dryness and painful intercourse. Many patients were embarrassed to bring it up, and providers didn't ask.
    • Fred Hutch's new sexual health clinic was created to address these topics and normalize the conversation, recognizing that sexual health is an important part of survivorship and quality of life.
    • The clinic provides comprehensive, individualized support including medication, sex therapy and pelvic-floor physical therapy.
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    48 mins
  • In the Lab with Dr. Rashmi Mishra: Shapeshifting cancer into a more treatable form

    In the Lab with Dr. Rashmi Mishra: Shapeshifting cancer into a more treatable form
    Aug 21 2026

    John Higgins interviews Dr. Rashmi Mishra, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Hsieh Lab at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, about how aggressive prostate cancer shapeshifts from a form that is treatable with drugs to a more lethal form that is much less treatable. In a recent study, she and her colleagues found potential ways to reverse that trick, forcing tumor cells to shapeshift back into the more treatable form. Their discovery opens a new line of attack against aggressive prostate cancer, as well as breast cancer and possibly other cancers.

    Key Takeaways:

    • Prostate cancer comprises two main types of cells: luminal, which is more treatable with existing therapies and a more aggressive, lethal type called basal, which is much less treatable.
    • A recent study by Dr. Rashmi Mishra, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Hsieh Lab at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, describes how prostate cancer shapeshifts from a luminal to a basal form to elude therapy without reprogramming its DNA.
    • Mishra and her colleagues found potential ways to reverse that shapeshifting trick, forcing tumor cells to shapeshift back into the more treatable form.
    • Their discovery opens a new line of attack against aggressive prostate cancer, as well as breast cancer and possibly other cancers.
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    5 mins
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