DCTD Programs

DCTD has six major programs that work together to bring unique molecules from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside:

• Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP)—strives to improve the diagnosis and assessment of cancer by effectively moving new scientific knowledge into clinical practice. This program stimulates, coordinates, and funds specimen resources, databases related to those specimens, and research on diagnostics and improved technologies to better characterize tumors, so that cancer patients and their physicians can have access to a broader range of diagnostic information as they make clinical decisions. The laboratory tools CDP develops also help to maximize the impact of cancer treatments.
• Cancer Imaging Program (CIP)—unites researchers in a team approach from disciplines as diverse as radiology, bioengineering, biology, chemistry, and physics. The program encourages researchers to integrate new imaging discoveries and developments into the study of cancer biology and into the clinical management of cancer and cancer risk. This translational research program is using new technologies to expand the role of imaging in noninvasive diagnosis, identification of disease subsets in patients, disease staging, and treatment monitoring. CIP supports and advises innovative developers in academia and private industry as they create the next generation of imaging technology, including molecular probes, optical technology devices, and new contrast agents.
• Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP)—functions as NCI’s primary clinical evaluator of new anticancer agents. Program staff members play a critical role in selecting promising agents to enter human clinical trials. In addition, the program evaluates new radiation and surgical methods, identifies biomolecular characteristics of malignant tumors that investigators may be able to exploit clinically, and administers the 11 cooperative research groups that unite researchers around the nation and the world in the pursuit of distinctive and effective new treatments for cancer. CTEP accomplishes its goals by administering, coordinating, and funding clinical trials, as well as sponsoring other research. The program fosters collaborations within the cancer research community and works extensively with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries as well. CTEP also reaches out to patients and their advocates to help establish research priorities.
• Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP)—serves as a vital resource in discovering potential cancer therapeutics and acquiring preclinical development information. The program provides research materials, including Web-accessible data and tools, vialed and plated compounds, tumor cells, and research animals, and manufactures new agents in bulk quantities for use in investigational new drug (IND)–directed studies. The program is playing a central role in new collaborations with the NCI Center for Cancer Research (CCR) to reinvigorate the cancer drug development pipeline, with the goal of significantly shortening the amount of time it takes to safely develop effective new treatments for patients with cancer.
• Radiation Research Program (RRP)—supports clinical research by providing expertise to investigators who perform novel radiotherapy research, assisting the radiotherapy research community in establishing priorities for the future direction of radiation research, providing medically underserved communities with access to radiotherapy, and evaluating the effectiveness of radiation research being conducted by NCI grantees. RRP also coordinates its activities with other radiation research programs at NCI, NIH, other federal agencies, and national and international research organizations. Additionally, RRP serves as a focal point for extramural investigators concerned with clinically related radiation research.
• Biometrics Research Branch (BRB)—provides state-of-the-art statistical and biomathematical analyses for DCTD and other NCI components and performs research in the areas of statistical, mathematical, and computational sciences that is motivated and informed by real and important problems in current cancer research. Branch members provide leadership for the DCTD national research programs by formulating biomathematical approaches for analyzing genomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and other data emanating from the developmental therapeutics, diagnostics, imaging, radiation research, and clinical trials programs.