Message From The Director

To help meet the Challenge Goal of eliminating suffering and death from cancer by 2015, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is engaged in a concerted effort to harness the power of nanotechnology (1) to radically change the way we diagnose, treat, and prevent cancer. Over the past 5 years, the NCI has taken the lead in integrating nanotechnology into biomedical research through a variety of programs. The results of these initial funding efforts have demonstrated clearly that melding nanotechnology and cancer research and development efforts will have a profound, disruptive effect on how we diagnose, treat, and prevent cancer.

The application of nanotechnology to cancer research could not come at a more opportune time given the recent exponential increase in our understanding of the process of how cancer develops . It is my belief that nanomaterials and nanodevices will play a critical and unique role in turning that knowledge into clinically useful advances that detect and interact with the cancer cell and its surroundings early in this process. By doing so, we will change for the better the way we diagnose, treat, and ultimately prevent cancer.

Thanks to the scientific expertise and translational development capacity concentrated in our Comprehensive Cancer Centers , SPOREs (Specialized Programs of Research Excellence), research networks, and intramural program, the NCI is well positioned to seize upon this important opportunity. In particular, I believe it is possible that a concerted, multidisciplinary research effort will quickly yield new technologies that will detect and pinpoint the molecular signatures of cancer at its earliest stages and that will enable physicians to determine early whether an anticancer therapeutic is working. These advances will change the way we care for cancer patients. Such technological advances will have an even greater impact because of their ability to change the way new cancer therapies will be tested and approved, increasing the speed with which new science is turned into new therapies.

Future developments from nanotechnology also include multifunctional nanoscale devices capable of simultaneously detecting and treating cancer. Also in the offing are novel methods for preventing cancer and ameliorating the symptoms that negatively impact a patient's quality of life. Nanotechnology will also create a host of powerful tools that cancer researchers will use to make the next generation of discoveries that will ultimately lead to clinical advances.

To ensure that we capitalize on this opportunity to make dramatic progress today, the NCI has crafted the Cancer Nanotechnology Plan (CNPlan). Over the past year, the NCI has held numerous symposia exploring the intersections of nanotechnology and cancer research, and the NCI staff has solicited input from a broad cross-section of the cancer research and clinical oncology communities. Intramural and extramural research working groups have discussed how best to apply the lessons of the NCI's initial explorations into nanotechnology to a focused and coordinated translational research effort that will have near-term benefits for patients.

Created with input from these experts, the CNPlan lays out a pathway and a set of directed mechanisms through which nanotechnology will be the fundamental driver of advances in oncology and cancer research conducted by multidisciplinary teams. The CNPlan will rely heavily on our substantial investments in our Comprehensive Cancer Centers and SPOREs, but it also calls for the development of as many as five Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNEs) that will contribute their expertise in nanotechnology to milestone-driven projects. To avoid duplicating efforts conducted through other Federal programs, including the National Nanotechnology Initiative and the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, the projects initiated under the CNPlan will be integrated, milestone driven, and product oriented, with targeted objectives and goals , and will use a project-management approach to capitalize in relatively short order on today's opportunities to create the tools that both clinicians and cancer researchers need now to eliminate suffering and death from cancer by 2015. Recognizing the importance of bringing expertise from many areas, partnership opportunities with other Federal agencies and the private sector will be critical, particularly in terms of clinical development activities and in our efforts to ensure that nanoscale devices will not themselves be harmful to cancer patients or the environment.

Ultimately, this is not just a plan for the NCI, but a call to action for the cancer research community. It emphasizes the process of building partnerships between the private and public sector with the goal of creating teams best equipped to translate today's knowledge about cancer biology and nanotechnology into clinically useful products. By joining together, I am confident that we will continue to make substantial scientific and medical progress to achieve the one goal that matters most: the reduction and elimination of the burden of cancer for all who are in need.

Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D.
Director
National Cancer Institute