Cancer ResearcH: What’s New & What’s on the Horizon

By Phase One Foundation

Below is a Q&A featuring Dr. Andrea Bild of City of Hope. Dr. Bild is a research oncologist and a PHASE ONE Grant Recipient. Her PHASE ONE funded trial utilizes biomarkers in ER+/HER2-negative breast cancer to predict outcomes and select optimal therapies. She recently participated in an interview with PHASE ONE regarding the current cancer research landscape and the vital role that clinical trials play in improving cancer care.

1. From your perspective, what is the state of the cancer research landscape today, and how did the challenges of 2025, including federal funding cuts, shape that picture for researchers, physicians, and patients?

Cancer research brings Americans together. Almost everyone has been touched by this disease, and wants to see us beat it. But 2025 was a hard year for the people doing that work. Cuts to federal funding have been devastating to the research community, and they have caused a slowdown in research, which means a slowdown in the advances that patients are counting on. In this new environment, philanthropy matters more than it ever has. Private giving is now what makes it possible to pursue the boldest, highest risk ideas, and to do the translational work that actually carries discoveries from the lab to the bedside. Philanthropy has become the safety net that keeps progress moving when public funding falls short.

2. Why are clinical trials so important to cancer care, and why do they matter now more than ever?

We have more powerful tools than ever before: new computational and mathematical models, and new ways to measure what a tumor is doing, that let us understand the state a cancer is in and how best to treat it. But the hardest part is not inventing these tools. The hardest part is what we call translational research, the work of taking a discovery and actually putting it to use in patient care. This is one of the most difficult and most underfunded stages of science, but also one of the most important, because it is where patients finally benefit from years of hard work. Clinical trials are how that translation happens. They are the bridge that carries a promising idea out of the laboratory and into real treatment, and that is why they matter now more than ever.

3. What emerging science or recent breakthroughs in oncology are you most excited about right now, and how could they change patient care?

What excites me most is the ability to read a tumor's state from chemical marks in the blood (called methylation marks), and to use that to guide treatment. Imagine if choosing the most effective next therapy took nothing more than a single blood draw, measuring the chemical signals from cancer specific genes in both the tumor and the tissue around it. With new blood tests that detect these marks, and new computational models that translate them into a picture of what the tumor is doing, we are on the verge of something remarkable. We will be able to take repeated measurements over time that track how a cancer is changing in near real time, and then match each change with the right therapy. That means more personalized treatment, and responses that last longer.

About PHASE ONE

For 25 years, PHASE ONE Foundation has been dedicated to a singular mission: advancing cancer research by funding early-phase clinical trials. Now more than ever, we are committed to ensuring that life-saving research continues regardless of shifts in the federal budget. As the funding landscape changes, private philanthropy is not just a complement to government research investment— it is a critical driver of discovery. By funding innovative, early-stage clinical trials across all cancer types, we give scientists the resources they need to keep moving forward.