United States and Ireland Establish Historic Cancer Collaboration

National Cancer Institute
Sunday, 3 October 1999

Top scientists from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today entered into an historic tripartite agreement to enhance cancer research and treatment in Ireland.

James Kiely, M.D., chief medical officer for the Republic of Ireland, Henrietta Campbell, chief medical officer for Northern Ireland, George Howarth, minister for health and social services for Northern Ireland, and Brian Cowen, minister for health and children for the Republic of Ireland, participated in a special ceremony Oct. 3 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. NCI Director Richard Klausner, M.D., NIH Director Harold Varmus, M.D., and NCI Director of the Division of Clinical Sciences Edison Liu, M.D., represented the United States at the signing ceremony.

The Memorandum of Understanding is expected to cement emerging relationships between scientists of all three countries. In particular, the new partnership establishes an infrastructure for increased collaboration in cancer research. It formalizes intentions to participate in joint clinical trials, share research technology, facilitate interactions among scientists and physicians, and participate in scientist exchange programs.

Initial projects will focus on coordination of tumor registries, on the development of informatics to support coordinated clinical trials, and on training and scholar programs to immerse scientists in the cancer research programs of partner institutions.

The Ireland-Northern Ireland-NCI Cancer Consortium will be administered by a governing board made up of the chief medical officers from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the NCI director.

Following the signing ceremony, hundreds of scientists from all three countries are participating in an international cancer conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oct. 4-6, 1999. The conference is sponsored jointly by the NCI, the Department of Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland, and the Department of Health and Children in Ireland.

For more information, or to contact National Cancer Institute, see their website at: www.cancer.gov