U.S. National Center Insitutes www.cancer.govNational Center Insitute
The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research
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Integrating Cancer Science

Cancer is a complex disease arising from a myriad of genetic and environmental events that elude and exploit normal cellular processes. The disease process is further confounded by its diversity and its progressive nature. Cancer science is currently at a crossroad where input and approaches from a breadth of disciplines are necessary to understand and appreciate its complexities. Scientists are recognizing the need for study designs with the power to uncover the environmental, lifestyle, genetic, and molecular determinants and pathways involved in cancer initiation, promotion, and progression.

Cancer research of the future will be energized as people from the various disciplines combine forces. New paradigms of collaboration will mean new ways of thinking about how we do science. This new culture will require the creation of an environment conducive to change, the merging of old disciplines, and the development of new ones. New funding mechanisms will accelerate development of infrastructures for cutting-edge interdisciplinary research at the intersection of basic, clinical, and population sciences. Integrated review of grant applications will take into account the melding of various disciplines, support large-scale team-based consortia to foster the inclusion of genomics and other emerging technologies into epidemiologic study designs, and use other less formal ways to encourage interdisciplinary teams to evolve in both directed and serendipitous ways.

Investments in integrative science will uncover the many factors influencing cancer initiation, promotion, and progression and thereby hasten the development of cancer prevention, detection, and treatment interventions. Epidemiologists, geneticists, behavioral scientists, and biologists will be working alongside statisticians, engineers, physicists, bioinformaticians and computer scientists, sociologists, psychologists, communication specialists, and educators to improve the quality of cancer care, and health outcomes for diverse populations. Large-scale consortial efforts involving population cohorts will systematically evaluate and identify molecular and biochemical biomarkers of susceptibility, gene-environment interactions, causal pathways and intermediate outcomes, and early-stage lesions amenable to early detection and treatment. Disparate perspectives and approaches will build the kind of synergy required to facilitate the easy flow of information from basic research to application.

Proposed New Investments

NCI will support a broad set of interactions and efforts, both within NCI and across the scientific community, to develop an integrative approach to cancer research. We will use novel funding approaches, promote new paradigms, and encourage multicenter partnerships that will capitalize on efforts across the entire biomedical research community for the benefit of cancer patients and those who care for them. We will develop training initiatives to introduce new and established investigators to the integrative science paradigm. NCI will use new investments in Fiscal Year 2007 to foster integration in four critical areas.

Required Resources

Implementing new pursuits to promote program integration and interdisciplinary team science will require new funding structures and environments conducive to team science and effective collaboration. We estimate the need for a budget increase of $190 million for new investments in this area.

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