roductive research has long been the driving force for developing superb multidisciplinary cancer care at M. D. Anderson. The institution’s ability to translate laboratory discoveries to more effectively treat patients is unparalleled.

Research programs are conducted in 484 laboratories, which have 817 support areas and 686 office support rooms located throughout the main M. D. Anderson complex as well as at satellite sites, such as the Smith Research Building.

Many research projects depend on animals — 99 percent mice and rats — to study cancer initiation and progression, and then to analyze newer drugs, biologic agents, radiation techniques and surgical procedures in the animals before applying to patients. The Department of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery oversees breeding and use of approximately 34,000 research animals involved in 459 specific research protocols.

Diverse research projects also are conducted at two units of M. D. Anderson’s Science Park in Bastrop County near Austin. All of the nearly 12,000 animals bred and used in the Department of Carcinogenesis at the Science Park-Research Division in Smithville are rodents, who are helping scientists there better understand how to prevent many cancers.

Veterinarians and support staff at the Science Park’s Department of Veterinary Sciences (DVS) near Bastrop coordinate production and use of animals at the Research Division as well as more than 4,000 animals raised and monitored on the 375-acre rural site operated by the DVS. This group includes mice, rats, rabbits, goats, sheep, rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees.