Cancer Centers – Driving Progress toward 2015

Cancer Centers are vital scientific and geographic hubs of progress for basic discovery. They are central platforms for development of effective approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. They provide life saving interventions and other advances to patients, their families, and the public. The research endeavors of Cancer Centers contribute new knowledge, improved treatments, and other advances to lower the incidence of cancer and improve survival rates. Increased investment is required to expand the geographic coverage and impact of Cancer Center services.

NCI-designated Cancer Centers extend their reach into the community through networks that link Centers, community hospitals, and private oncology practices to provide patients with state-of-the-art care and access to clinical trials. They bring together the best of basic, translational, and population research to achieve improved cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Translational research networks link basic research-oriented Centers with the Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Centers also link to their communities and regions through education and outreach networks, provide a locus for stable and integrated consortia and other partnerships, and are an important element of state cancer planning processes nationwide. Cancer Centers are also expected to be at the forefront of cancer prevention intervention development and the dissemination of these approaches to their communities and regions.

Proposed New Investments

As much as NCI Cancer Centers have contributed to progress against cancer, NCI will enhance their impact even further by expanding the number of Centers, facilitating stronger interaction among them, and fostering fuller outreach efforts into the community.

• Expansion
  By adding up to 15 new Cancer Centers over the next five years – increasing the number of Centers from 60 to as many as 75 – it will be possible to establish Centers in states and in metropolitan areas where none currently exist. This expanded infrastructure will improve the access of minority and underserved populations to their state-of-the-art cancer care services and research, including community-based research.
  
  
• Integration
  Horizontal integration will be achieved by implementing progressive bioinformatics, communication, and related systems that will boost synergy, reduce redundancy, and leverage resources across the network of Cancer Centers. NCI will broaden the geographic impact of the Centers, networks, and consortia and vertically integrate them with community and regional health care delivery systems. Vertical integration will provide new avenues of scientific pursuit within Cancer Centers and strengthen outreach to and involvement with the communities they serve. NCI will fund additive programs in collaborative multidisciplinary research and require integration and sharing of results.
  
  
• Outreach
  New NCI-supported outreach programs will enable Cancer Centers to create and strengthen partnerships with government agencies and community organizations. Centers will also be able to provide expertise and other support to caregivers, patients and families, and appropriate health agencies to a greater extent than previously possible. Moreover, with adequate resources and contemporary technologies, specialized services offered by Cancer Centers in the United States could be utilized anywhere in the world.

Required Resources

An annual increase of $164 million for five years will expand the NCI-designated Cancer Centers program from 60 centers to 75 and achieve a more extensive, robust, and active program through enhanced integration and outreach.