The
National Cancer Institute (
NCI) is part of the
National Institutes of HealthThe National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
(NIH), which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S. National
CancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
Program and conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other activities related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; the supportive care of cancer patients and their families; and cancer survivorship. As of July 2010, the current director of the NCI is Dr. Harold Varmus.
The National Cancer Institute has large intramural research programs in
Bethesda, MarylandBethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
and NCI-Frederick at
Fort DetrickFort Detrick is a U.S. Army Medical Command installation located in Frederick, Maryland, USA. Historically, Fort Detrick was the center for the United States' biological weapons program ....
, in
Frederick, MarylandFrederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...
. In addition, the NCI funds cancer researchers around the United States.
Legislative history
Congress established the NCI by the
National Cancer Institute Act, August 6, 1937, as an independent research institute. Congress then made the NCI an operating division of the National Institutes of Health by the
Public Health Service ActThe Public Health Service Act is a United States federal law enacted in 1944. The full act is captured under Title 42 of the United States Code "The Public Health and Welfare", Chapter 6A "Public Health Service"....
, July 1, 1944. Congress amended the
Public Health Service ActThe Public Health Service Act is a United States federal law enacted in 1944. The full act is captured under Title 42 of the United States Code "The Public Health and Welfare", Chapter 6A "Public Health Service"....
with the National Cancer Act of 1971 to broaden the scope and responsibilities of the NCI "in order more effectively to carry out the national effort against cancer." Over the years, legislative amendments have maintained the NCI authorities and responsibilities and added new information dissemination mandates as well as a requirement to assess the incorporation of state-of-the-art cancer treatments into clinical practice.
Anti-cancer drug investigations
The NCI
played an early roleThe era of cancer chemotherapy began in the 1940s with the first use of nitrogen mustards and folic acid antagonist drugs. Cancer drug development has exploded since then into a multi-billion dollar industry...
in the discovery of
anti-cancer drugsChemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
in the U.S. According to a 1996 NCI analysis of drugs approved by the
FDAThe Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
, two-thirds of the anti-cancer drugs approved as of the end of 1995 were NCI-sponsored
Investigational New DrugThe United States Food and Drug Administration's Investigational New Drug program is the means by which a pharmaceutical company obtains permission to ship an experimental drug across state lines before a marketing application for the drug has been approved...
s:
In addition, scientists in the NCI played an important role in the discovery and development of important AIDS drugs including
zidovudineZidovudine or azidothymidine is a nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitor , a type of antiretroviral drug used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It is an analog of thymidine....
(AZT),
didanosineDidanosine is sold under the trade names Videx and Videx EC. It is a reverse transcriptase inhibitor, effective against HIV and used in combination with other antiretroviral drug therapy as part of highly active antiretroviral therapy .-History:The related pro-drug of didanosine,...
(ddI), and
zalcitabine (ddC).
Quality assurance
The NCI provides funding for numerous cancer research endeavors. Two of its largest known grants include the
Radiological Physics Center-Mission statement:The mission of the Radiological Physics Center is to assure NCI and the Cooperative Groups that institutions participating in clinical trials deliver prescribed radiation doses that are clinically comparable and consistent....
(RPC) in
Houston, TexasHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
and the
Quality Assurance Review CenterThe Quality Assurance Review Center is a research program within the University of Massachusetts Medical School that provides radiotherapy quality assurance , diagnostic imaging data management, and clinical research support...
(QARC) in
Providence, Rhode IslandProvidence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. The RPC assures the NCI of proper participation in the physics-related aspects of its studies and QARC provides radiotherapy quality assurance and diagnostic imaging data management to all of the NCI sponsored cooperative groups. The RPC essentially guides all participating institutions as to how radiation is to be applied in a radiotherapy protocol. QARC on the other hand performs thousands of radiotherapy reviews per year and receives radiotherapy data from around 1,000 hospitals in both the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and abroad. In all, over 30,000 cases have been reviewed at QARC since its inception in 1977. QARC also maintains a strategic affiliation with the
University of Massachusetts Medical SchoolThe University of Massachusetts Medical School is one of five campuses of the University of Massachusetts system and is home to three schools: the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Graduate School of Nursing; a biomedical research enterprise; and a range of...
in
Worcester, MassachusettsWorcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
. The RPC has been consistently funded by the NCI since 1968, and QARC has received support from the NCI since 1980.
See also
- caBIG
The cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid is an open source, open access information network with the mission of enabling secure data exchange throughout the cancer community...
, the Cancer BioInformatics Grid, a National Cancer Institute (USA) initiative to link cancer researchers and their data
- Cancer Information Service
The Cancer Information Service is a program of the National Institutes of Health that is provided to the United States of America public to provide personalized, confidential responses to specific questions about cancer...
(CIS)
- European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)
- Journal of the National Cancer Institute
JNCI Monographs is indexed and abstracted in-External links:***...
- NCI-designated Cancer Center
NCI-designated Cancer Centers are a group of approximately 66 cancer research institutions in the United States supported by the National Cancer Institute....
- Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy
Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy is a programme created by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2004 to build upon the Agency’s experience in radiation medicine and technology, and enable developing countries to introduce, expand or improve their cancer care capacity and services in a...
A close partner in dealing with cancer care in developing world
General references
External links