Contact:

Sudhir Srivastava, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Early Detection Branch, Division of Cancer Prevention
National Cancer Institute
Telephone: (301) 496-3983
FAX: 301-402-0816
E-Mail: ss1a@nih.gov

Objective:

The objective of this initiative is to establish a consortium of institutions, academic as well as industrial, with resources for translational research in earlier cancer detection and risk assessment. The consortium will have responsibility to discover and to coordinate the preclinical development, evaluation, and application of new biomarkers/reagents for the earlier detection of cancer and for risk assessment. The ultimate objective of is to establish, through the consortium, a stable connection between basic laboratory research and rapid clinical evaluation of new biomarkers.

Description of Project:

The consortium will have three main components -- basic sciences, clinical sciences/public health, and epidemiology/biostatistics. A Steering Committee will coordinate the work of the consortium. Logistic support and informatics will be provided through an auxiliary data management group. The scientific community will be encouraged to use the consortium and its resources as a platform to formulate new research questions and to hasten the discovery and application of new biomarkers. Collaboration among academic and industrial leaders for the development of high throughput, sensitive assay methods for new biomarkers from a prevention viewpoint will be encouraged.