NCI - The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research 2006 - Our Strategic Investments for Fiscal Year 2006

Our Strategic Investments Will Help Preempt Cancer at Every Stage

What we learn through continued studies in Molecular Epidemiology and Integrative Cancer Biology coupled with Advanced Technologies in bioinformatics, imaging, proteomics, and nanotechnology will provide the knowledge and tools to link research progress across all areas of strategic investment.

Metastatic Progression

An Integrated Clinical Trials System will streamline processes and speed delivery of new preventive agents, diagnostic approaches, and cancer treatments to all who need them.

Malignant Transformation

Strategic Development of Cancer Interventions will increase our capacity for delivering molecularly based diagnostics and treatment.

Cancer Initiation

Overcoming Cancer Health Disparities is essential at every juncture from basic discovery to intervention development to the collaborative delivery of public health programs and patient care.

Susceptibility & Pre-Cancerous Changes

Prevention, Early Detection, and Prediction initiatives will provide needed resources for making prevention our first line of defense against cancer and improving our ability to detect, diagnose, and treat cancer at its earliest stages.

Our Strategic Investments for Fiscal Year 2006

Cancer Prevention, Early Detection, and Prediction

Develop new medical approaches and evidence-based public health interventions and policies to substantially reduce the incidence of and improve prognosis for cancer.

Support development of new technologies and approaches to prevention, through tobacco control, energy balance, vaccines, and new drugs.
Develop biomarkers and imaging techniques for early detection.
Develop predictors of cancer risk and treatment success.

Overcoming Cancer Health Disparities

Discover the causes of health disparities, develop interventions to reduce them, and facilitate intervention delivery.

Conduct community-based, multidisciplinary, collaborative studies to understand the causes of health disparities.
Develop culturally appropriate interventions and assess their efficacy.
Establish collaborations for research, translation, and application.
Train minorities in health care and research.

Strategic Development of Cancer Interventions

Optimize the transfer, development, and delivery of highly effective molecularly targeted drugs and technologies to specifically prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat cancer.

Expand existing programs to increase the number of new drug candidates and new interventions for understudied malignancies.
Invest in enterprise initiatives for biospecimen resources and large-scale genome analysis.
Build capacity for biomarker discovery and development and target validation.
Support program integration and new technologies for preclinical development.

An Integrated Clinical Trials System

Build a highly interactive and optimally coordinated cancer clinical trials system that will prioritize and accelerate the development of new, effective interventions and ensure that they are incorporated into medical practice.

Strengthen scientific prioritization and coordination
Speed novel agent development and marker validation.
Expand the goals of clinical trials to include health disparities research, symptom management, quality of life, and other areas of focus.

Advanced Technologies

Accelerate the development and use of advanced technologies to enhance patient care and connect investigators with one another and with healthcare providers and patients.

Build bioinformatics infrastructure and tools.
Develop and apply advanced imaging technologies to cancer research and care.
Support proteomic technology development for overcoming barriers to early detection.
Continue to foster the use of nanotechnology for cancer research and care.

Integrative Cancer Biology

Understand the complex networks within cancer cells and between cancer cells and their environment to discover new leads for cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment.

Develop computational models of biological systems.
Support studies of the tumor microenvironment.
Conduct tumor macroenvironment research.

Molecular Epidemiology

Understand the behavioral, genetic, and epigenetic causes of cancer and use this knowledge to generate new means of preventing, detecting, and treating cancers.

Investigate specific types of cancer through cohort, case-control, and family-based consortial studies.
Research behavioral and environmental risk factors.
Integrate population science with genomics & other technologies.
Build partnerships and interdisciplinary research.