"Today we have the opportunity to renew our commitment to the conquest of cancer," said NCI Director Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach. "We're talking about an emerging field of great promise, and an old problem of great devastation that requires new hope."

Representatives from cancer centers, industry, and federal agencies attended the discussion in person and via teleconference and webcast. Dr. Anna Barker, deputy director of NCI's Advanced Technologies and Strategic Partnerships, gave a brief overview of its components: funding research through three to five Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, as well as individual investigators; fostering multidisciplinary team assembly via interdisciplinary training; and establishing a Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory at NCI's Frederick, Md., facility. Read more  

The potential uses of nanodevices are staggering. Early research indicates, for instance, that nanosystems may allow for real-time assessments of therapeutic and surgical procedures, enabling clinicians to rapidly determine whether a treatment is working. Other work has shown the ability of targeted nanodevices to elude biological blockades and transport high concentrations of multiple therapeutics directly to cancer cells and the tissues in their immediate microenvironment. In this way, not only are healthy cells spared, but malignant cells and their allies in metastasis are eliminated. Nanotechnology also is making existing technologies more effective. In research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in March, for example, NCI researchers presented results from work in mice that showed that a nanoscale contrast agent vastly enhanced the ability of MRI to detect breast cancer lymph node metastases. Read more  

This NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads a national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic and clinical biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.