Community doctors are invited to spend up to a week at the center to learn about the latest techniques. One of the center's advantages is its close proximity to the basic-research laboratories at UT Southwestern. It was the strength of the medical center's research in genetics and molecular biology that first drew Peters to the campus. Through daily interactions with these investigators, physicians become involved in the search to understand the causes of cancer. Collaborative research projects are common, and translating basic research to the clinical arena is a high priority.
Clinical research takes the form of clinical trials.
Dr. David Euhus, assistant professor of surgery, is exploring breast lymph-node mapping. A radioactive substance, technetium, is injected around the breast tumor. A gamma camera then tracks the path of the technetium. The first node the radioactive tracer reaches is the sentinel node. Researchers theorize that if the sentinel lymph node is cancer-free, there should be no cancer cells in the other lymph nodes.