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NCI and Avon Foundation Award More
than $7 Million for Breast Cancer Research
The Progress for Patients Award Program, a partnership between the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Avon Foundation, announced in September its most
recent round of grants for innovative research focused on breast cancer. The
grants were awarded as supplements to existing funding of four projects led by
NCI-designated Special Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) breast cancer
investigators, one project led by ovarian SPORE investigators, and six projects
at NCI-designated cancer centers. "Through this private-public partnership
we have demonstrated that common goals can help participating partners to
support research that directly benefits patients, in this case through various
clinical interventions," said Dr. Jorge Gomez, chief of NCI's Organ Systems
Branch in the Office of Centers, Training, and Resources.
The Avon awards were launched in October 2001 when the Avon Foundation pledged
$20 million to NCI to fund translational breast cancer research. With an
application receipt, review, and funding announcement process that takes less
than 6 months, delays common to other funding mechanisms are minimized. Each
grant application is reviewed by a minimum of four reviewers, including
scientific experts, statisticians, and patient advocates, who evaluate and
score each application. Following these reviews, final recommendations on
funding are forwarded from NCI to the Avon Foundation for their approval. Read
more 
Adapting the Translational and Clinical
Infrastructure to Meet Tomorrow's Challenges
In an analysis of cancer trends over decades, 5-year survival of patients with
cancer has risen from approximately 20 percent in 1935 to 50 percent in 1971 to
64 percent by 2003. Although increased screening during this interval has
influenced these survival trends, a very reliable endpoint, the number of
cancer deaths per 100,000 Americans, has also been falling since about 1990.
Deaths from lung cancer, for example, have been declining in men since 1991 and
in women have plateaued since 1995, predictably following the substantial
decrease in per capita cigarette consumption that began in the 1960s. Mortality
from colorectal cancer has been declining for women since 1975 and for men
since the 1980s. Read
more
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This NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
NCI, which was established in 1937, leads a national effort to eliminate the
suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic and clinical biomedical
research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a
future in which we can prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that
do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative
treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot
eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases.
For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit
http://www.cancer.gov.
NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at
ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.
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