EXPIRED
April 26, 2024
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
The Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announces the opportunity for current NIH grant awardees or cooperative agreement program participants to collaborate with the NCI Cancer Prevention-Interception Targeted Agent Discovery Program (CAP-IT) Specialized Centers to support the CAP-IT Program research. Collaborations should be proposed by either CAP-IT investigators or investigators who are not currently CAP-IT Center investigators (non-CAP-IT investigators) but hold an active NIH grant or cooperative agreement, whose research scope, interests, and activities as specified in the parent awards are within the CAP-IT Programs research objectives. All potential applicants are encouraged to contact the NCI Program Directors to discuss the planned collaboration and application.
These supplements will achieve the following:
While much progress has been made in the development of new or improved methods of determining cancer risk and detecting and monitoring emerging precancer, current approaches for cancer risk reduction are still centered on surgical procedures. With the increasing knowledge of early drivers of the oncogenic process, reduction in cancer mortality can be significantly improved if oncogenic pathway-targeted interventions are successfully deployed to further mitigate cancer risk and better manage precancer especially in higher-risk populations. Because higher-risk populations represent a diverse group of individuals with different genetic susceptibilities, varying histories of exposure to carcinogens, different lifestyles, age, gender, and the presence of other comorbidities, it is nearly impossible to find and deliver universally efficacious cancer preventive interventions in this heterogenous population.
A more rational approach to cancer prevention and interception in higher-risk cohorts is to employ preventive measures specifically tailored for individual risk factors, an approach referred to as precision cancer prevention-interception. Success of precision cancer prevention-interception depends on two complementary steps. First, higher-risk individuals need to be identified, e.g., through screening and early detection of precursor/precancers, some of which may progress to cancer, and testing for genetic susceptibility. Second, innovative, safe, and efficacious measures designed to reduce cancer risk or molecularly/immunologically intercept, arrest, and possibly eliminate precancer in these higher-risk individuals are needed to complement or replace surgical resection or ablation. However, because very few target-specific agents are available for these higher-risk individuals, current cancer interception strategies predominantly rely on surgical interventions. It is this gap in discovering and bringing risk-tailored targeted agents to the higher-risk populations for cancer prevention and interception that CAP-IT will address.
Beginning with the earliest stage of tumor formation through the establishment of fully invasive cancers, oncogenesis is a continuum of dynamic interplay between emerging aberrant cell clones and the host tumor surveillance machineries. Better understanding of the early oncogenic processes and surveillance machineries can shed light on molecular physiological changes that are responsible for driving progressive tumor growth and weakening the host defense mechanisms. Biological and molecular events and changes in tumor precursor cells as well as in the tissue microenvironment can potentially tilt the balance for or against tumor growth. Some of these events may serve as oncotargets that can be exploited.
There are existing NCI programs with accessible genomic and molecular profiles and biomarker databases that can reveal potentially exploitable targets for cancer prevention and interception. These include the Pre-Cancer Atlas (PCA) in the Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN), the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA; through NCI Genomic Data Commons, GDC), NCI Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), and Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD2). Furthermore, Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) and other biomarker discovery and translational research initiatives continually uncover oncogenic driver pathways and networks, some of which can be targeted to prevent or intercept the oncogenic process.
CAP-IT aims to take advantage of these existing program databases and establishes a new discovery research paradigm in cancer prevention that leverages the potential oncotarget leads identified from precancer biology research and related databases and exploits their oncogenic characteristics and vulnerabilities to discover innovative cancer prevention-interception agents especially focusing on higher-risk populations.
The ultimate goals of CAP-IT are to advance newly discovered efficacious cancer preventive or interceptive agents to the existing NCI, Division of Cancer Prevention preclinical and clinical development pipelines, PREVENT Program for further development towards IND and Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network (CP-CTNet) for early phase clinical trials, and thereby to establish a scientific roadmap and a more streamlined foundational infrastructure for fast-tracking agent discovery and development for cancer prevention and interception from bench to bedside.
CAP-IT Program was fully launched in 2023 with three U54 Specialized and one U24 Centers.
Applications for this initiative must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent.
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and PA-20-272 must be followed, with the following additions:
NCI will conduct administrative reviews of applications and will support the most meritorious applications submitted for consideration, based upon the availability of funds. Additionally, NCI program staff will evaluate applications using the following selection factors:
1. Does the proposed administrative supplement address the NOSI requirements?
2. Are the proposed administrative supplement activities relevant to the parent grant and original scope?
3. How well will the proposed collaborative project with CAP-IT Center(s) contribute to the CAP-IT Programs research objectives?
4. Does the proposed collaborative project demonstrate scientific rigor?
5. Are the scope and implementation plans included in the proposed collaboration realistic, given the time and budget requested?
6. Do the PD(s)/PI(s) have appropriate experience in successfully leading collaborative projects?
7. Are the institutional infrastructure, facilities, equipment, and resource deployment strategies appropriate for the proposed collaboration?
Applicants are strongly encouraged to notify the program contact at the Institute supporting the parent award that a request has been submitted in response to this NOSI to facilitate efficient processing of the application. Applicants are also encouraged to contact the NCI CAP-IT Program to discuss the planned collaboration and application.
Applications nonresponsive to the terms and conditions will not be considered for this NOSI initiative.
Please direct all inquiries to:
Shizuko Sei, M.D.
Division of Cancer Prevention
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-5005
Email: seis@nih.gov
Vignesh Gunasekharan, Ph.D.
Division of Cancer Prevention
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-5814
Email: vignesh.gunasekharan@nih.gov
Fiscal/Grants Management Contact
Crystal Wolfrey
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 301- 496-8634
Email: wolfreyc@mail.nih.gov