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Special Announcement |
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Hawk Takes Over NCI's Office of Centers, Training, and Resources
Dr. Ernest Hawk, chief of NCI's Gastrointestinal and Other Cancers Research
Group in the Division of Cancer Prevention, will assume a new role as the
director of NCI's Office of Centers, Training and Resources (OCTR), effective
November 14. Dr. Hawk, who first came to NCI in 1993 as a cancer prevention
fellow, replaces acting director Dr. Linda Weiss in this role, which she
assumed upon retirement of OCTR's previous director last January. Dr. Hawk
brings extensive peer review and grants oversight experience to his new
appointment, where he will oversee OCTR's four branches and be responsible for
scientific, fiscal, and administrative management. Dr. Weiss will resume her
previous position as chief of the Cancer Centers Branch and Dr. Jaye Viner will
serve as acting chief of the Gastrointestinal and Other Cancers Research Group.
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Bridging the International Divide
NCI is advancing the cancer fight globally through a series of partnerships
with foreign cancer counterparts, extending from Asia to the Middle East to
Europe. These bilateral agreements involve sharing research information and
researchers across international borders.
NCI's longest such relationship is
the 30-year-old U.S.-Japan Cooperative Cancer Research Program. Under this
agreement, the two nations have sponsored more than 250 seminars and
collaborated on more than 500 researcher exchanges.
The current focus of the
exchange program is to provide junior scientists from both countries with
mentoring, training, and research experience while working on research projects
of mutual interest to the host laboratories.
NCI also is working with the
National Translational Cancer Research Network of the United Kingdom to
establish translational research fellowships in cancer, to train future
generations of translational cancer researchers and build working relationships
between these researchers on both sides of the Atlantic. Under this initiative,
a shared Fellow would receive 3 years of support for working on a translational
research project of mutual interest to the U.S. and the UK, splitting that
fellowship period equally in both countries. It is expected that two
fellowships will be awarded in 2005 and two fellowships every year
thereafter.
Additionally, NCI is expanding a bilateral cancer relationship with
Italy's Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) beyond the area of
pharmacogenomics. Under the existing partnership, several joint research
projects have been identified and collaborative research is ongoing. NCI and
ISS also cosponsored a workshop on cancer vaccines in Rome last April.
Reaching Out to Russia
NCI and its Russian counterparts in the cancer fight moved closer to a formal
alliance last June after NCI Director Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach and NCI's
OIA Director Dr. Joe Harford joined Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary
Tommy G. Thompson on a delegation trip to meet with Russian health officials on
their soil.
A significant component of that trip involved the visit to the N.N.
Blokhin National Cancer Research Center in Moscow, the largest cancer treatment
center in Russia. While in Moscow, Secretary Thompson and members of the HHS
delegation also met with the leaders of the American-Russian Cancer Alliance
(ARCA), which was started nearly 3 years ago, with participants from the
University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center in Baltimore; the Fox Chase
Cancer Center in Philadelphia; the Blokhin Center; and the Kurchatov Institute,
the premier Russian nuclear research center.
ARCA's goal is to develop a
partnership among American and Russian scientists engaged in cancer prevention
and therapy. Its mission is to pool the intellectual and scientific resources
of both countries, which will lead to positive results in cancer control more
quickly and efficiently than if done in each country independently. Among the
ARCA projects is a groundbreaking project funded by the U.S. to use Russia's
expertise and nuclear facilities to produce research radioisotopes for
diagnostic and therapeutic applications in oncology.
Another outcome from the
HHS delegation was the creation of a joint cancer communications activity that
will allow personnel from both countries' institutions to interact. In addition
to NCI, the activity will involve communications personnel from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, the two academic institutions currently
involved with ARCA, and several U.S. nongovernmental entities. Plans are also
on the table to organize a Russia-U.S. activity centered on cancer prevention.
NCI's International Research Contributions
NCI, in addition to conducting a national research program, also supports
cancer-related research around the world. For instance, recruitment for a phase
III trial is underway in Guanacaste, Costa Rica to evaluate the efficacy of a
vaccine to protect women against two oncogenic strains of human papillomavirus
(HPV). NCI researchers, in collaboration with the Foundation for the Costa
Rican Institute for Research and Training in Nutrition and Health (Fundación
INCIENSA) and the Costa Rican Ministry of Health, plan to test a virus-like
particle (VLP) vaccine originally developed at NCI. Costa Rica was chosen for
the phase III trial due to its high rate of cervical cancer.
Led by Dr. Allan
Hildesheim of NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) and Dr.
Rolando Herrero of Fundación INCIENSA, the 8-year study will randomize 12,000
to 15,000 women aged 18 to 25 years to receive either the VLP or a control
vaccine. Enrollees will receive three vaccinations over a period of 6 months
and will participate in follow-up screening for several more years. Preclinical
studies in the United States and elsewhere have repeatedly suggested the
potential usefulness of VLP HPV vaccines. Other trials have also suggested that
this type of vaccine shows adequate short-term protection from persistent HPV
infections in women.
Other studies in which DCEG has been involved include
research collaborations with China, Japan, Africa, Russia, Australia, and
Europe, some dating back as far as the early 1970s. For example, NCI and the
Shanghai Cancer Institute of China have been collaborating on numerous
projects, including a prospective study to evaluate
causes of cancer among women in China. In Africa, NCI has teamed up with the Ugandan Virus Research Institute to study AIDS-related cancers
such as Kaposi's sarcoma. DCEG has also played an important role in a partnership between investigators in Australia, Europe, and the U.S. to map novel melanoma susceptibility genes and better understand the risk factors for melanoma.
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