Title:
Tissue Resources for Cancer Research
Contact:
Roger L. Aamodt, Ph.D.
Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis
National Cancer Institute
Telephone: (301) 496-7147
Email: ra32u@nih.gov
Objective of Project:
This Request for Application (RFA) will request applications from multi-institutional organizations or consortia that are interested in developing human specimen resources with clinical and outcome data to meet the scientific needs in one or more of the specified tissue types to serve to the cancer research community.
Description of Project:
Human specimen resources are required to meet critical scientific needs such as those identified in the 2001 NCI Bypass Budget and by various NCI working groups. This initiative is intended to expand the range of NCI funded specimen resources and cover all major tumor types in order to better support cancer research needs. Organized tissue resources provide important support for research studies while furnishing quality control and economy of scale over the serendipitous collection of specimens in the context of a research project.
Applicants will be asked to apply as multi-institutional organizations (e.g. clinical cooperative groups) or pre-formed consortia. Each consortium must be able to accrue large numbers of cases (hundreds to thousands, depending on the research focus). Applicants may propose a human specimen resource designed to address critical scientific questions in any major NCI program area such as: diagnosis, early detection, epidemiology, prevention, and treatment and to focus on one organ site or on closely related sites (e.g. components of the GI tract or GU system). Because the most critical resource needs will vary with the tumor site, the applicants must decide which cancer research questions could best be addressed by the proposed resource and then justify their choice. Applicants must be willing to provide specimens to the cancer research community and accordingly must propose policies and systems to provide equitable access to the resource.