Read short, plain-language summaries of significant research papers that CCR scientists and their collaborators have contributed to the oncology research community.
Vol. 6, No. 1, 2012 - Bringing Hope Through Discovery. CCR clinicians know there is something worse than being told you have cancer. It is being told that your cancer is incurable, and there is no known treatment for you. This bleak situation was unacceptable to Shivaani Kummar, M.D., even before she arrived at CCR in 2004.
View the media coverage that results from seminal discoveries made by CCR's translational research teams.
Cancer has eluded us for centuries, but the researchers at NCI's Center for Cancer Research (CCR) remain undaunted. They are bringing real hope, real progress. Our camera will bring you into their labs and clinics to see this progress for yourself.
Resources for the Media and Public
Resources for Our Staff
CD22: A Promising Target for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treatment There are about 4,000 new cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in the United States each year. Learn more...
Newly-Identified Fragile Sites Push Stressed Cells toward Cancer Understanding how the changes in genomes of cancer cells arise can give researchers new insights into the process of cancer development. Learn more...
Intermittent IL-7 Signaling Essential for T cell Homeostasis IL-7 signaling must be intermittent, not continuous, during CD8(+) T cell homeostasis to promote cell survival instead of cell death. Learn more...
Delving More Than Skin Deep There are several schools of thought on cancer. One claims it’s a basic knowledge problem. A lot of things can be done, but we still don’t have a complete understanding of the process. Vincent Hearing, Ph.D., Deputy Chief of CCR’s Laboratory of Cell Biology, belongs to this school. He has spent 42 years at the bench characterizing a single cell type called a melanocyte. For him, this groundwork is necessary in order to target the abnormal melanocytes that often result in the deadly skin cancer—melanoma.
Seeing the Unexpected Mary Carrington, Ph.D., Senior Investigator in CCR’s Laboratory of Experimental Immunology and Director of the SAIC Basic Science Program at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, has a talent for seeing unexpected molecular interactions, and for interpreting their implications. While studying the genes that code for human leukocyte antigens (HLAs)—the molecules that distinguish “self” vs. “nonself” on human cells, tissues, and organs—and the role they play in a person’s susceptibility to HIV infection, she and her colleagues made a novel discovery.
Deconstructing Health Disparities Survival rates for African-Americans with cancer are simply not as encouraging as those for other racial groups. Many factors have been examined—differences in socioeconomic status and access to health care, PSA screening, age at diagnosis, and disease stage and grade—to identify reproducible causes for these substantial racial disparities, but so far, no convincing explanation has emerged. Stefan Ambs, Ph.D., M.P.H., a Senior Investigator in CCR’s Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, who heads the Breast and Prostate Unit, is determined to change this situation.
A service of the National Cancer Institute