Will Sharing Ideas Advance Cancer Research?

After Hope Goldstein was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer in 2001, her family wanted to help. Her husband and two sons started researching the disease and quickly realized that even with surgery and chemotherapy, the prognosis wasn't good.

So they went in search of the one thing they believed still might help Mrs. Goldstein: new ideas.

They started calling cancer researchers, doctors at leading academic centers, specialists in ovarian cancer. In their conversations, they ran into an unexpected obstacle. Many people did have new ideas. But frequently, they weren't willing to share them.

Friends who worked in medical research tried to explain: Companies often will not pursue an idea for commercialization unless it is patented, requiring secrecy in the early stages. In addition, the grant process is competitive, and no one wants to get scooped. Perhaps most notably, professional advancement depends on publishing ideas in scientific journals.

In 2004, Mrs. Goldstein died. But her son Robert Goldstein, 41, continued to think about the issue. It seemed to him that what was holding back cancer research wasn't only a lack of money but a culture that discouraged the sharing of promising leads.