Dr. Roy Jensen introduces the season's focus on the people behind cancer research and hands hosting duties to Dr. Ronald Chen, chair of Radiation Oncology and associate director for Community Outreach and Engagement at The University of Kansas Cancer Center. Dr. Chen highlights the KU Cancer Center's K12 Paul Calabresi Career Development for Clinical and Translational Oncology program, which mentors and trains early career clinician-investigators, and interviews K12 scholar Dr. Yiduo Hu, a breast medical oncologist who joined KU after training at Yale and completing research and degrees at Case Western, Dana-Farber/Harvard, and Columbia University. Dr. Hu describes translational research as bridging communication between bench science and patient care, explains how the K12 Program's protected time and mentorship support his work on DNA damage repair and genome integrity in breast cancer, and discusses his newly activated pragmatic trial comparing two commonly used chemotherapy regimens for high-risk breast cancer. They also emphasize collaboration, including engagement with KU Cancer Center's PIVOT patient advocate group, to keep research patient-relevant and team-based.

00:00 Season Introduction

00:28 Guest Host Handoff

00:44 K12 Program Overview

01:18 Dr. Hu's Background

01:58 Translational Research Explained

03:08 K12 Support and Focus

04:09 Building A Clinical Trial

05:38 Protected Time Matters

06:22 Mentorship at KU Cancer Center

07:39 Community and PIVOT Collaboration

09:41 Career Reflections

10:33 Closing Thanks and Resources

Links from this Episode:

· Learn more about the K12 Paul Calabresi Career Development for Clinical and Translational Oncology Program

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