National Cancer Institute

National Cancer Institute
US-NIH-NCI-Logo.svg

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (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 Cancer 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.[1]

The National Cancer Institute has large intramural research programs in Bethesda, Maryland and NCI-Frederick[2] at Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland. In addition, the NCI funds cancer researchers around the United States.

Contents

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 Act, July 1, 1944. Congress amended the Public Health Service Act 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 role in the discovery of anti-cancer drugs in the U.S. According to a 1996 NCI analysis of drugs approved by the FDA, two-thirds of the anti-cancer drugs approved as of the end of 1995 were NCI-sponsored Investigational New Drugs:[citation needed]

Alkylating agents .

Antimetabolites

Plant alkaloids and antibiotics
Synthetic drugs

Hormones and steroids

Biologicals

  • Alpha interferon (Intron A, Roferon-A) (1986)
  • BCG (TheraCys, TICE) (1990)
  • G-CSF (1991)
  • GM-CSF (1991)
  • Interleukin 2 (Proleukin) (1992)

In addition, scientists in the NCI played an important role in the discovery and development of important AIDS drugs including zidovudine (AZT), 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 (RPC) in Houston, Texas and the Quality Assurance Review Center (QARC) in Providence, Rhode Island. 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 States 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 School in Worcester, Massachusetts. The RPC has been consistently funded by the NCI since 1968, and QARC has received support from the NCI since 1980.

See also

References

Notes

General references

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • National Cancer Institute — The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government s principal agency for cancer research. NCI conducts, coordinates, and funds cancer… …   English dictionary of cancer terms

  • National Cancer Institute — Logo des National Cancer Institute Das National Cancer Institute (NCI) ist ein US amerikanisches Krebsforschungszentrum. Es ist Teil der National Institutes of Health (NIH), die wiederum eine Behörde des United States Department of Health and… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • National Cancer Institute — (NCI, Национальный институт злокачественных новообразований[1]) является подразделением National Institutes of Health (NIH, Национальные институты здравоохранения)  одного из 11 управлений, входящих в состав Министерства здравоохранения и… …   Википедия

  • National Cancer Institute — Le National Cancer Institute (NCI) est un institut fédéral américain de recherche contre le cancer présidé depuis le 12 juillet 2010 par le Dr. Harold Varmus[1]. Historique Le National Canc …   Wikipédia en Français

  • National Cancer Institute Egypt — National Cancer Institute, Cairo University Established 1969 Type Public President Prof. Dr. Salah Abd El HAdy Location Cairo, Egypt …   Wikipedia

  • National Cancer Institute — National Can|cer In|sti|tute, the a US organization that works to discover the causes of ↑cancer and to find treatments and cures for it …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Journal of the National Cancer Institute —   Abbreviated title (ISO) …   Wikipedia

  • NCI (National Cancer Institute) — The National Cancer Institute is one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S. The mission of the NCI is to “lead a national effort to reduce the burden of cancer morbidity and mortality and ultimately to prevent the disease. Through …   Medical dictionary

  • Journal of the National Cancer Institute — A medical journal sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in the U.S. and published by Oxford University Press in the U.K …   Medical dictionary

  • National Eye Institute — The National Eye Institute (NEI) is one of the US National Institutes of Health that was established in 1968. The mission of NEI is to prolong and protect the vision of the American people. The NEI conducts and performs research into treating and …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”