The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research
A Plan and Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2008
Prepared by the Director, National Cancer Institute as mandated by The National Cancer Act (P.L. 92-218)
Centers, Networks, and Consortia
The new research paradigm hinges on interdisciplinary science, strategic partnerships, immediate application of new technologies, optimal information sharing, and close links to health care delivery systems. The centers, networks, and consortia created and supported by NCI over the last 12 years comprise a model framework to support team science. They also provide a means of fostering coalitions with other cancer research funding organizations, professional societies, business and industry, and local and state governments. Examples of NCI centers, networks, and consortia include:
- NCI-designated Cancer Centers integrate multidisciplinary research across single or multiple institutions and reach out to the local community with education and other services.
- Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) focus entirely on discovery-to-delivery research dedicated to specific cancers.
- Clinical Trial Cooperative Groups and the Community Clinical Oncology Program extend the opportunity for participation in clinical trials to patients treated in the community rather than at Cancer Centers.
- The SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) network tracks incidence, mortality, and survival.
- The NCI Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) is a concept designed to work through partnerships with NCI-designated Cancer Centers to improve quality of care.
- NCI Centers of Excellence connect specialized groups of scientists.
A Closer Look — The Cohort Consortium
Networks and consortia are geographically dispersed groups that focus on developing or validating new interventions or research in specialty areas. The NCI Cohort Consortium demonstrates the power of pooling biologic samples and resources in a collaborative effort to enhance our understanding of genetic susceptibility to cancer. The consortium combines the long-term investment in biobanks from large cohorts of individuals followed for many years. It applies the power of genome-wide scans on samples from roughly 800,000 individuals to assess 500,000 genetic markers in order to uncover those that determine cancer risk. Groups of toxicologists, developmental biologists, and epidemiologists studied the effects of specific environmental agents and the subsequent risk of hormone-related cancers. These and similar studies have begun to identify genes previously unrecognized as important to cancer susceptibility. Laboratory, clinical, and population researchers are rapidly following-up on these discoveries to elucidate the underlying responsible mechanisms.
