EGRP News Flash - August 1, 2008
Funding Opportunity Announcements: Pilot Studies in Pancreatic Cancer
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently re-issued two trans-NCI funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) to promote innovative research across multiple disciplines to better understand the etiology of pancreatic cancer and to facilitate its early detection, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of pancreatic cancer. The FOAs use the NIH Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21) and the NIH Small Research Grant (R03) funding mechanisms.
Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal disease with the worst prognosis of all the major malignancies. It is clear that a better understanding of the etiology and biology of pancreatic cancer is urgently needed to increase the chances for timely and effective diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of malignancy. Due to short survival following a diagnosis for pancreatic cancer, the data gathered thus far only relate to the incidence of pancreatic cancer, and scant information is available on its prevalence. Such data are not sufficient to describe racial associations with the etiology, progression, or prevention of the disease. It has been estimated that at least 10 percent of pancreatic cancer occurs in a familial form, and may be linked to six genetic syndromes or variants. However, it is likely that previously unrecognized susceptibility genes and gene-environment interactions can predispose a subset of the population to pancreatic cancer.
All the proposed projects must be focused on, and directly pertinent to pancreatic cancer. Given the limits of the scientific scope appropriate for the FOAs, specific topics of interest may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Conduct of correlative studies using specimens from multi-institutional prevention and/or treatment trials to study outcomes;
- Identification of 'new' environmental exposures that contribute to pancreatic cancer including adverse energy balance;
- Development of a biofluid-based test for pancreatic cancer that can be used in population studies;
- Assessment of the impact of pancreatic cancer on health-related quality of life of patients and their caregivers;
- Conduct of pilot surveillance studies and generation of survivorship registries; and
- Identification of factors that may contribute to disparity in incidence of pancreatic cancer among populations.
Because the nature and scope of the proposed research will vary from application to application, it is anticipated that the size and duration of each award will also vary. For R03 applications, a budget for direct costs of up to $50,000 per year and a project duration of up to 2 years may be requested for a maximum of $100,000 direct costs for a 2-year project period. The R03 is not renewable. Direct costs are limited to $275,000 over an R21 2-year period, with no more than $200,000 in direct costs allowed in any single year. The R21 is also not renewable.
For cancer control, epidemiology, and survivorship, contact the Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program's Mukesh Verma, Ph.D., vermam@mail.nih.gov. Please refer to the FOAs for the full list of scientific contacts.
Access the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts:
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