Targeting Cancer

NANOTECH MEDICINE

The National Cancer Institute has launched a new five-year initiative to fight cancer by using nanotechnology. The NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer will spearhead the effort, specifically to develop engineered nanoparticles to treat cancer.

"Nanotechnology has the potential to radically increase our options for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer," NCI Director Andrew C. von Eschenbach said in introducing the program. He noted that the initiative will be a "focused effort that is cancer-led but not cancer-centered," adding that the ultimate goal is to get the most out of this new technology to transform health care.

To that end, NCI plans to spend $144 million over the next five years to support the initiative. These funds will include about $25 million in redirected money from other programs that have been completed or phased out.

The largest chunk of the initiative's budget--$90 million over five years--will go toward funding several Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence. NCI plans to release a call for applications for these centers this fall and expects to have at least five of them set up by next summer.

The initiative also includes $38 million over five years for targeted research grants in the nanotech fight against cancer. There will be $16 million set aside to train scientists to work in this multidisciplinary environment.

NCI plans to collaborate with NIST to work on characterization of nanomaterials and with FDA to define pathways to get nanotechnologies into clinical testing.

"We in the cancer research community must reach out to scientists and experts from any discipline that offers new ways of understanding, interfering with, and ultimately curing cancer," noted American Association for Cancer Research President Lynn M. Matrisian in a statement. "This nanotechnology initiative provides an important new model for how to do this."