2018 Overview and Highlights
A look back at fiscal year 2018 for NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
Download the 2018 ReportMessage From
the Director
The Cancer Moonshot℠ to accelerate cancer research aims to make more therapies available to more patients, while also improving our ability to prevent cancer and detect it at an early stage. In 2016, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act, authorizing funding for the Cancer Moonshot over 7 years. To ensure that the Cancer Moonshot’s approaches are grounded in the best science, the Cancer Moonshot Task Force established a Blue Ribbon Panel of experts to make transformative research recommendations to accelerate progress against cancer.
The Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) has lead responsibility at NCI in a number of priority areas identified by the Blue Ribbon Panel, including engaging patients to contribute their tumor profile data; reducing cancer risk and cancer health disparities through approaches in development, testing, and broad adoption of proven prevention strategies; and collecting, sharing, and analyzing patient cancer data, to predict future patient outcomes.
In this issue of Overview and Highlights, we describe the division’s role in advancing research initiatives that align with key recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel Report. Some of these initiatives are supported with existing funds, while others are supported using Cancer Moonshot funding authorized under the 21st Century Cures Act. Regardless of the funding source, these activities span the cancer control continuum and represent critical research opportunities poised for acceleration.
Since its creation, DCCPS has played a leadership role at NIH in the development of implementation science. The conceptual and methodological groundwork laid by the division was an essential prerequisite to the ambitious scientific efforts reflected in several Cancer Moonshot initiatives. The excitement and energy surrounding implementation science will only grow as a wave of DCCPS-funded projects produce a wealth of new evidence to inform cancer control.
As always, we proactively engage our extramural community, partners, and stakeholders in sharing their perspectives and identifying those areas where we can have the greatest and most rapid impact through our research investments.
We are grateful for the valuable insight and expertise we have received, and we will continue to solicit input into how we can most effectively champion opportunities for progress in cancer control for all Americans.
Robert T. Croyle, Ph.D.
Director, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
Investments in Cancer
Control Research
Researchers funded by DCCPS have advanced the science to improve public health for more than two decades, and we celebrate their scientific advances and research accomplishments in cancer control and population sciences. Major programmatic areas include epidemiology and genomics research, behavioral research, health care delivery research, surveillance research, and survivorship research.
In FY18, DCCPS funded 647 grants valued at more than $433 million, with work in the United States and internationally aimed to reduce risk, incidence, and deaths from cancer, and to enhance the quality of life for cancer survivors. In addition, the division funded $88.5 million in contracts, which includes the SEER Program. While the majority of DCCPS funding is for investigator-initiated research project grants, the division also uses a variety of strategies to support and stimulate research such as multi-component specialized research centers and cancer epidemiology cohorts.
DCCPS Research Portfolio by Fiscal Year
Opportunities
for Researchers
In addition to encouraging scientific ideas for researchers through investigator-initiated applications and omnibus solicitations, DCCPS develops and participates in NIH funding opportunities aimed at stimulating new directions in specific research to examine, discover, and test methodologies to improve public health.
More Funding OpportunitiesThe following are examples of recent funding opportunity announcements to encourage research projects in emerging or priority areas:
- Modular R01s in Cancer Control and Population Sciences (PAR‑18‑869)
- Secondary Analysis and Integration of Existing Data to Elucidate the Genetic Architecture of Cancer Risk and Related Outcomes (PA‑17‑239, PA‑17‑243)
- Core Infrastructure and Methodological Research for Cancer Epidemiology Cohorts (PAR‑17‑233)
- Using Information Technology to Support Systematic Screening and Treatment of Depression in Cancer (PA‑18‑492, PA‑18‑493)
- U.S. Tobacco Control Policies to Reduce Health Disparities (PAR‑18‑675, PAR‑18‑674)
- Tobacco Use and HIV in Low and Middle Income Countries (PAR‑18‑023, PAR‑18‑022)