NCI Awards First Grants for the Director's Challenge

National Cancer Institute
Friday, 3 December 1999

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced today that it has awarded the first 10 grants of a major new initiative to define the patterns of molecular changes in tumors called "The Director's Challenge: Toward a Molecular Classification of Tumors." These molecular profiles will lay the foundation for the precise molecular diagnosis of cancer. Currently, cancers are diagnosed primarily based on the microscopic appearance of tumors and their clinical staging.

If successful, the new tumor classification schemes will more accurately reflect an individual patient's risk of the cancer progressing. "Correct and informative diagnosis is the cornerstone of modern medicine," said NCI Director Richard Klausner, M.D. "This initiative will initiate the next great intellectual leap forward in accurately diagnosing cancer by defining, for the first time, the very molecules that are driving the growth of individual tumors."

As part of the initiative, investigators will work collaboratively, with the assistance of NCI staff, to identify ways to represent research data, so that other cancer researchers can interpret and analyze it. They also will develop strategies for publicly releasing research data. This approach to data sharing should significantly increase the value of the data, and it should maximize the impact of the NCI investment in molecular-based tumor classification research. The NCI also anticipates that approaches to data sharing pioneered by the Director's Challenge investigators will serve as future models for the cancer research community.

The 10 five-year grants, totaling $4.1 million for the first six months of funding, were awarded to:

- Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif. (Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator for $914,581) to develop molecular-based tumor classification schemes in breast and prostate cancer.

- University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb. (Wing C. Chan, M.D., principal investigator for $379,106) to develop molecular profiles in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City (William L. Gerald, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator for $450,035) to develop molecular profiles that distinguish androgen-independent from androgen-dependent prostate cancer.

- Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in San Diego (John C. Gutheil, M.D., principal investigator for $537,736) to develop molecular-based classification schemes for organ-confined prostate cancer.

- University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. (Samir Hanash, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator for $725,954) to develop molecular-based classification strategies in colon, ovarian, and lung cancers.

- University of Pennsylvania Center for Cancer Pharmacology in Philadelphia (Steven W. Johnson, Ph.D., principal investigator for $219,177) to develop molecular profiles in ovarian cancer.

- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston (David M. Livingston, M.D., principal investigator for $372,583) to develop molecular-based classification schemes in early stage prostate and lung cancers.

- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle (Jerry Radich, M.D., principal investigator for $193,189) to develop molecular profiles in several stages of chronic myeloid leukemia.

- The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia (Louise C. Showe, Ph.D., principal investigator for $252,464) to develop molecular profiles that identify subgroups of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

- Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, Ohio (James C. Willey, M.D., principal investigator for $106,090) to develop profiles of chemosensitive and chemoresistant non-small cell lung cancer.

Today's announcement reports the first of two funding actions that will take place for the NCI initiative. The second funding will follow review of applications received by Nov. 16, 1999.

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