About NCI
The National
Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the National Institutes of
Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S. National
Cancer Program and conducts and supports research, training,
health information dissemination, and other activities related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; the supportive care of
cancer patients and their families; and
cancer survivorship. On April 1, 2015, Douglas Lowy, M.D.[1] was named the Acting Director of NCI. The National
Cancer Institute mediates the majority of its mission via an extramural program that provides grants for
cancer research. Additionally, the National
Cancer Institute has intramural research programs, which constitutes a small fraction of the overall National
Cancer Institute budget, in Bethesda, Maryland and at the Frederick National Laboratory for
Cancer Research[2] at Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland.
Legislative history
Congress established the NCI by the National
Cancer Institute Act, August 6, 1937, as an independent research institute. Congress then made the NCI an operating division of the National Institutes of
Health by the
Public Health Service Act, July 1, 1944. Congress amended the
Public Health Service Act with the National
Cancer Act of 1971 to broaden the scope and responsibilities of the NCI "in order more effectively to carry out the national effort against cancer." Over the years, legislative amendments have maintained the NCI authorities and responsibilities and added new information dissemination mandates as well as a requirement to assess the incorporation of state-of-the-art
cancer treatments into clinical practice.
Leadership
1. Douglas Lowy, M.D. is Acting Director of the NCI. Dr. Lowy, who received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama in November 2014 (along with his colleague, Dr. John Schiller), was named Acting Director on April 1, 2015.
2. Harold Varmus M.D. was the 14th Director of the NCI. Co-winner of the Nobel Prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, Dr. Varmus was nominated by President Barack Obama to the position on May 17, 2010 and left the NCI on March 31, 2015.
3. John E. Niederhuber, MD, 13th Director of the NCI, was nominated by President George W. Bush, serving in the role from 2006 to July 2010.
4. Andrew von Eschenbach, the 12th Director, served from 2001 to 2006 before transitioning to a role as Commissioner of Food and Drugs. He is now an adjunct professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson
Cancer Center and serves on the board of directors of BioTime, a
biotechnology company.
5. Richard D. Klausner, the 11th Director, served from 1995 to 2001 before leaving to become President of the Case Institute of Health, Science, and Technology and later Executive Director of Global
Health for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
6. Kathryn Zoon, Principal Deputy Director, 2002 to 2004. Dr. Michael B. Sporn was the Chief of the Laboratory of Chemoprevention, 1978 to 1995.
Last Updated on: Nov 28, 2024