DCP supports research on the causes of and risk factors for cancer to translate these findings into new cancer prevention and interception strategies. This includes increasing knowledge of how internal and external factors contribute to cancer risk. Internal factors – such as genetics, immunity and inflammation, hormones, and the microbiome – are associated with cancer risk. External risk factors include infections (oncogenic viral and bacterial) and environmental carcinogens – such as smoke, air pollution, toxic waste, and radiation.
People with elevated risk are more likely to develop cancer, and therefore more likely to benefit from a prevention intervention than people with average or low risk.
Cancer preventive agent discovery and development requires translation of risk factors into preventive interventions. Human studies and clinical trials focus on evaluating interventions to prevent or intercept pre-cancerous lesions; the pre-malignant progression to invasive cancer; recurrence of precancerous lesions; and how to halt the infections from leading to cancer.
Foundational Prevention Research Programs
Cancer Immunoprevention Network (CIP-Net) supports research projects focused on the discovery of novel immunoprevention pathways and immune targets.
Cancer Prevention-Interception Targeted Agent Discovery Program (CAP-IT) is a collaborative research network with the overarching goal of discovering molecular or immunologically targeted agents designed to prevent or intercept the development of cancer in higher-risk populations.
Discovery and Development of Natural Products for Cancer Interception and Prevention (DDNP-CIP) supports the discovery and development of novel natural products that are safe, non-toxic, and efficacious for cancer interception and prevention.
PREVENT Cancer Preclinical Drug Development Program is a peer-reviewed research pipeline that supports new prevention interventions and biomarkers headed toward clinical trials.
Clinical Cancer Prevention Research
Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network (CP-CTNet) performs early phase clinical trials to assess the safety, tolerability, and cancer preventive potential of agents and interventions.
HIV/Cervical Cancer Prevention CASCADE Clinical Trials Network conducts pragmatic clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness of clinically proven interventions to optimize the cervical cancer screening, management, and precancer treatment cascade for women living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
NCI Cervical Cancer Last Mile Initiative is a public-private partnership to validate self-collection as a comparable alternative to provider-collected sampling for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in cervical cancer screening. This includes the Self-collection for HPV Testing to Improve Cervical Cancer Prevention (SHIP)Trial
NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) is a clinical trials network of cancer professionals bringing research to populations across the country in the communities where most patients live.
U.S.-Latin American-Carribbean HIV/HPV Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network (ULACNet) has partnership centers that focus on improving prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals.
Training Program in Prevention
The Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program (CPFP) provides advanced training to fellows to give them a strong foundation in the field of cancer prevention and control.