The National Advanced Technologies Initiative for Cancer

Harnessing the Power of Advanced Technologies to Eliminate the Suffering and Death Due to Cancer

Although cancer is being unraveled rapidly at the gene, protein, and even the "nano" levels by the largest group of researchers ever to investigate a specific disease, we have not concomitantly created the technology development resources and the seamless system needed to capitalize on their discoveries.

Urgent Need - Unique Opportunity

We need to assemble interdisciplinary teams and create innovative mechanisms that enable the exchange of ideas and materials in ways that maintain incentives for the commercialization and delivery of these new cancer technologies. On a national scale, we need public-private coordination aimed at delivering advanced technologies through an integrated pipeline of cancer diagnostics and therapeutics development.

NCI's current Cancer Center infrastructure is well established and already plays a central role in the development, transfer, and commercialization of advanced technologies. The discovery and early development of drugs such as Gleevec^TM, a molecularly targeted drug for chronic myelogenous leukemia, have taken place in these Centers. Cancer Centers have also been pivotal in establishing relationships with state and regional biotechnology programs and are logical connection points for leveraging resources with private companies and other collaborating entities to accelerate the development of advanced cancer technologies. NCI has already taken steps to achieve paradigm shifting advances through the launch of the cancer Bioinformatics Grid (caBIG), an unprecedented platform to be available to the entire cancer research community. We have also undertaken early efforts in areas such as biomarkers and nanotechnology. (See Advanced Technologies.) However, without an initiative such as the one described below, it will likely take decades for these technologies to reach patients.

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Proposed Initiative

The National Advanced Technology Initiative for Cancer (NATIc) will provide the research and development community with the necessary infrastructure to harness the Nation's biomedical technology resources and capabilities and speed product development. This effort will capitalize on discoveries from basic research and leverage existing technology development capabilities nationwide. Through a virtual network of regional "hubs," the most innovative biomedical scientists, clinicians, physical scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and others will be linked in cutting-edge collaborations for technology development. Partnerships among academic and research institutes, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, and government agencies will integrate and coordinate translational application and commercialization and help bridge the gap between discovery and delivery.

A central coordinating unit will be established to provide core services and integrative technologies to the regional hubs. Specialized technology "nodes" will focus on specific areas of research and development at cancer and academic medical centers, state and regional innovation and biotechnology centers, and start-up and other private sector companies. Examples of specialty areas that will benefit from integration and coordination are bioinformatics and advanced computing; advanced imaging; drug discovery and high-throughput screening; proteomics, biomarkers, and diagnostic platforms; computational and systems biology; nanotechnology; high-throughput genomics sequencing; biopharmaceutical development and scale-up; biosensors and model systems engineering; and bioengineering and advanced prototype facilities.

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Anticipated Outcomes

The advanced healthcare technologies that derive from this initiative will provide the Nation with a unique resource to not only help NCI achieve its goal but also support research advances in other diseases and ultimately accelerate the realization of personalized medicine. With the launch of this integrative approach, we anticipate dramatic acceleration in several of the strategic investment areas described in this document.

• Biomarker studies will be completed more quickly, revealing protein patterns and other molecular changes in saliva, sera, urine, or biopsy tissue that indicate the presence of precancerous lesions or malignant tumors.
• New nanotechnology platforms will more quickly allow for the earlier use of biomarker information in diagnosing cancer through a single drop of blood.
• Innovations in cancer imaging will move the field more rapidly beyond anatomical imaging to methods that detect and monitor the molecular features of cancer. Technological advances will speed the availability of new devices and agents for the real-time monitoring of genetic and other cancer-associated changes.
• Novel approaches built through NATIc collaborations will enable clinicians to optimize the use of targeted diagnostics, therapies, and preventives to preempt cancer at its earliest stages and deliver the right treatment to each patient.
• Common bioinformatics platforms and tools provided through a virtual network will support data sharing and allow cross-disciplinary teams to work synergistically to develop and deliver advanced cancer technologies. A "smartcard" for storing electronic medical records and making them available to clinical trial participants and their caregivers for follow-up care is one of the many innovations envisioned by this initiative.

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Required Resources

Click here to review the NCI Fiscal Year 2006 budget increase request for Advanced Technologies. We propose to support the NATIc separately, at a total cost of $2.5 billion over five years, through three funding sources: (1) special appropriations from Congress totaling $1.5 billion over the five-year period, (2) redeployment of $500 million of NCI's annual appropriations over five years, and (3) $500 million in philanthropic contributions.

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