Strategic Plans
- NCI Strategic Plan for Leading the Nation
- Disease-Specific Strategic Plans
- Progress Review Group (PRG) Reports
- Strategic Implementation Plans to Address the Recommendations of the PRGs
- Progress Review Group (PRG) Reports
- Other Strategic Plans
The NCI Strategic Plan for Leading the Nation
(Full PDF Version of NCI Strategic Plan 
)
Our Mission: Reduce the burden of cancer by leading an integrated effort to advance fundamental knowledge about cancer across a dynamic continuum of discovery, development and delivery
In 2002-2003 the NCI leadership, working with staff in NCI's divisions, centers, and offices, identified a number of strategic priorities:
- Molecular Epidemiology
- Integrative Cancer Biology
- Cancer Prevention, Early Detection and Prediction
- Overcoming Cancer Health Disparities
- An Integrated Clinical Trials System
- Strategic Development of Cancer Interventions
- Advanced Technologies
- International Cancer Control Research
Over the last several years, the NCI leadership has identified and implemented numerous initiatives and other strategies for carrying out these priorities.
In 2004, the NCI leadership decided to refine these priority areas in order to use them as a foundation for an NCI strategic plan. The priorities evolved into eight objectives, which comprise the NCI Strategic Plan for Leading the Nation. NCI leaders and staff conceived the Plan with ongoing input from NCI advisory groups and regular interactions with the cancer research and advocacy communities. The eight strategic objectives are:
To Preempt Cancer at Every Opportunity
- Understand the Causes and Mechanisms of Cancer
- We will conduct and support basic, clinical, and population research to gain a more complete understanding of the
genetic, epigenetic, environmental, behavioral, and sociocultural determinants of cancer and the biological mechanisms underlying cancer
resistance, susceptibility, initiation, regression, progression, and recurrence.
- Accelerate Progress in Cancer Prevention
- We will accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of cancer prevention interventions by investing in
research focused on systems biology, behavior modifications, environmental and policy influences, medical and nutritional approaches, and
training and education for research and health professionals.
- Improve Early Detection and Diagnosis
- We will support the development and dissemination of interventions to detect and diagnose early-stage malignancy.
- Develop Effective and Efficient Treatments
- We will support the development and dissemination of interventions to treat malignancy by either destroying all
cancer cells or modulating and controlling metastasis, both with minimal harm to healthy tissue.
To Ensure the Best Outcomes for All
- Understand the Factors that Influence Cancer Outcomes
- We will support and conduct studies to increase our understanding of and ability to measure the environmental,
behavioral, sociocultural, and economic influences that affect the quality of cancer care, survivorship, and health disparities.
- Improve the Quality of Cancer Care
- We will support the development and dissemination of quality improvement interventions and measure their success in
improving health-related outcomes across the cancer continuum.
- Improve the Quality of Life for Cancer Patients, Survivors, and Their Families
- We will support the development and dissemination of interventions to reduce the adverse effects of cancer diagnosis
and treatment and improve health-related outcomes for cancer patients, survivors, and their families.
- Overcome Cancer Health Disparities
- We will study and identify factors contributing to disparities, develop culturally appropriate intervention
approaches, and disseminate interventions to overcome those disparities across the cancer control continuum from disease prevention to
end-of-life care.
The NCI Strategic Plan outlines what NCI must do to lead the nation. As leader of the National Cancer Program, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) will continue to provide vision and leadership to the nationwide community of researchers, public health workers, healthcare providers, patients, advocates, and policymakers working to defeat cancer. This leadership includes continued work in broad research areas and optimal use of existing and new knowledge to develop and disseminate evidence-based interventions for preventing and controlling all cancers. Our success will depend on our ability to integrate activities across a seamless continuum of discovery, development, and delivery; partner with others to leverage resources and build synergy; and ensure that what we learn in the clinic and community informs future discovery.
Examples of strategies proposed in the Strategic Plan to accelerate the pace by which the fruits of discovery are harvested for the benefit of cancer patients and the public at large are:
- Developing standardized measures of cancer care outcomes across the cancer continuum.
- Ensuring that relevant audiences receive new information about prevention, treatment and follow-up.
- Developing better diagnostic and screening tools for early detection, risk assessment, and recurrence.
- Gaining a full understanding of genetic susceptibility and cancer causation.
- Examining the role of health policy in reducing and eliminating cancer health disparities.
- Developing a balanced approach for managing the toxicities of cancer therapy.
Implementation of this strategic plan is a work in progress that will evolve within our broad objectives until the challenge goal has been accomplished. The strategic plan will offer important dividends to the basic research community. As we invest in initiatives that create greater seamlessness along the research continuum and yield new tools and new platforms for collaboration, members of the basic research community will be enabled to quickly move worthy science forward.
This document will serve as a reference and guide for the development of operational level plans and an organizer for measuring and reporting progress. We will continue to use The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research as NCI's annual operational plan and budget where we outline milestones for the fiscal year and provide more specificity as to how we will carry out the objectives described in this Strategic Plan. In all of our planning, we will endeavor to be responsive to changing public health needs and to important new scientific and technological opportunities.
Disease-Specific Strategic Plans
Progress Review Group (PRG) Reports
This final product of Phase 1 of the Progress Review Group (PRG) lists research priorities and the resources needed to achieve them. The priorities identified have a real and proven impact on NCI's scientific plans and priorities.
| Breast Cancer (August 1998) |
Gynecologic Cancers (November 2001) |
| Prostate Cancer (August 1998) |
Kidney and Bladder Cancers (August 2002) |
| Colorectal Cancer (April 2000) |
Stomach and Esophageal Cancers (December 2002) |
| Brain Tumor (November 2000) |
Sarcoma (January 2004) |
| Pancreatic Cancer (February 2001) |
Trans-HHS Cancer Health Disparities (March 2004) |
| Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma (May 2001) |
Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology (AYAO) (August 2006) |
| Lung Cancer (August 2001) |
Strategic Implementation Plans to Address the Recommendations of the PRGs
These strategic implementation plans were developed by a working group composed of NCI staff. Each working group carefully considered the recommendations of the PRG in light of the existing research portfolio for that disease area. The resulting strategies address gaps in priority areas and lay out a plan that could be pursued over five years.
| Pancreatic Cancer (September 2002) |
| Brain Tumor (October 2002) |
| Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma (October 2002) |
This strategic implementation plan was developed by the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance (LSYAA) in response to the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology (AYAO) Progress Review Group (PRG) report, Closing the Gap: Research and Care Imperatives for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer. The implementation plan provides actionable strategies to address the five recommendations outlined in the PRG report.
Adolescent
and Young Adult Oncology (AYAO) (2007)  |
Other Strategic Plans
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