National Cancer Institute


The National Cancer Institute coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health, which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI 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.
NCI is the oldest and has the largest budget and research program of the 27 institutes and centers of the NIH. It fulfills the majority of its mission via an extramural program that provides grants for cancer research. Additionally, the National Cancer Institute has intramural research programs in Bethesda, Maryland and at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research at Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland. The NCI receives more than in funding each year.
The NCI supports a nationwide network of 71 NCI-designated Cancer Centers with a dedicated focus on cancer research and treatment and maintains the National Clinical Trials Network.

History

Timeline


Alkylating agents
  • Chlorambucil
  • Cyclophosphamide
  • Thiotepa
  • Melphalan
  • Streptozotocin
  • Ifosfamide
Antimetabolites
  • Mercaptopurine
  • Methotrexate
  • Thioguanine
  • Cytosine arabinoside
  • Floxuridine
  • Fludarabine phosphate
  • Pentostatin
  • Chlorodeoxyadenosine
Plant alkaloids and antibiotics
  • Vincristine
  • Actinomycin D
  • Mithramycin
  • Bleomycin
  • Doxorubicin
  • Mitomycin C
  • L-Asparaginase
  • Daunomycin
  • VP-16-213
  • VM-26
  • Taxol

Synthetic drugs
  • Hydroxyurea
  • Procarbazine
  • O, P'-DDD
  • Dacarbazine
  • CCNU
  • BCNU
  • Cis-diamminedichloroplatinum
  • Mitoxantrone
  • Carboplatin
  • Levamisole
  • Hexamethylmelamine
  • All-trans retinoid acid
  • Porfimer sodium
Hormones and steroids
  • DES
  • Prednisone
  • Fluoxymesterone
  • Dromostanolone
  • Testolactone
  • Methyl prednisolone
  • Prednisolone
  • Zoladex
Biologicals

Organization

The NCI is divided into several divisions and centers.

Intramural

NCI-designated Cancer Centers

The NCI-designated Cancer Centers are one of the primary arms in the NCI's mission in supporting cancer research. There are currently 69 so-designated centers; 13 clinical cancer centers, 49 comprehensive cancer centers, and 7 basic laboratory cancer centers. NCI supports these centers with grant funding in the form of P30 Cancer Center Support Grants to support shared research resources and interdisciplinary programs. Additionally, faculty at the cancer centers receive approximately 75% of the grant funding awarded by the NCI to individual investigators.
The NCI cancer centers program was introduced in 1971 with 15 participating institutions.

National Clinical Trials Network

The NCTN was formed in 2014, from the Cooperative Group program to modernize the existing system to support precision medicine clinical trials. With precision medicine, many patients must be screened to determine eligibility for treatments in development.
Lead Academic Participating Sites were chosen at 30 academic institutions for their ability to conduct clinical trials and screen a large number of participants and awarded grants to support the infrastructure and administration required for clinical trials. Most LAPS grant recipients are also NCI-designated cancer centers. NCTN also stores surgical tissue from patients in a nationwide network of tissue banks at various universities.

Developmental Therapeutics Program

The NCI Development Therapeutics Program provides services and resources to the academic and private-sector research communities worldwide to facilitate the discovery and development of new cancer therapeutic agents.
Under the label "Discovery & Development Services" several services are offered, among them the [|NCI-60 human cancer cell line screen] and the Molecular Target Program.
In the Molecular Target Program thousands of molecular targets have been measured in the NCI panel of 60 human tumor cell lines. Measurements include protein levels, RNA measurements, mutation status and enzyme activity levels.

NCI-60 Human Tumor Cell Lines Screen

The evolution of strategies at the National Cancer Institute illustrates the changes in screening that have resulted from advances in cancer biology. The Developmental Therapeutics Program operates a tiered anti-cancer compound screening program with the goal of identifying novel chemical leads and biological mechanisms. The DTP screen is a three phase screen which includes: an initial screen which first involves a single dose cytotoxicity screen with the 60 cell line assay. Those passing certain thresholds are subjected to a 5 dose screen of the same 60 cell-line panel to determine a more detailed picture of the biological activity. A second phase screen establishes the maximum tolerable dosage and involves in vivo examination of tumor regression using the hollow fiber assay. The third phase of the study is the human tumor xenograft evaluation.
Active compounds are selected for testing based on several criteria: disease type specificity in the in vitro assay, unique structure, potency, and demonstration of a unique pattern of cellular cytotoxicity or cytostasis, indicating a unique mechanism of action or intracellular target.
A high correlation of cytotoxicity with compounds of known biological mechanism is often predictive of the drugs mechanism of action and thus a tool to aid in the drug development and testing. It also tells if there is any unique response of the drug which is not similar to any of the standard prototype compounds in the NCI database.

Leadership

DirectorTenureNotes
Carl Voegtlin1938–1943
Roscoe Roy Spencer1943–1947-
Leonard Andrew Scheele1947–1948Served as the seventh Surgeon General of the United States from 1948 to 1956.
John Roderick Heller1948–1960
Kenneth Millo Endicott1960–1969
Carl Gwin Baker1970–1972
Frank Joseph Rauscher, Jr.1972–1976
Arthur Canfield Upton1977–1980
Vincent T. DeVita, Jr.1980–1988
Samuel Broder1988–1995
Richard D. Klausner1995–200111th Director, left to become President of the Case Institute of Health, Science, and Technology and later Executive Director of Global Health for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Andrew C. von Eschenbach2002–200612th Director, served from 2001 to 2006 before transitioning to a role as Commissioner of Food and Drugs.
John E. Niederhuber2006–201013th Director of the NCI, was nominated by President George W. Bush.
Harold Varmus2010–2015Co-winner of the Nobel Prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer. He was director of the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to 1999.
Norman E. SharplessOctober 2017–Present15th Director of the NCI.  Transitioned to acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs in April 2019 and returned to NCI in November 2019.

Notable NCI faculty