National Cancer Institute
Less than a decade into the new century, America’s cancer research enterprise — led and facilitated by the National Cancer Institute — is coming to deeply understand cancer’s causes, inner workings and complexities at an ever accelerating pace. Spurred by the 2003 completion of the landmark Human Genome Project, we now understand, as never before, that cancer is primarily a disease of our genes — both in the germline DNA passed on to us by our parents and in the changes to our genes that accumulate over a lifetime. The tumor, as we have known for some years now, is not a single entity. Scientists have learned that cancers are collections of aberrant cells, which may rely on seemingly normal tissue in the microenvironment that surrounds the tumor, in order to communicate, grow, and metastasize. As we continue to make many unexpected discoveries about cancer’s common pathways and stunning intricacies, each discovery may also reveal an opportunity for solutions to a complex problem. The pages that follow highlight some of the exciting cancer research opportunities before us today — and some of the visionary scientists who have greatly enhanced our knowledge of cancer.
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