BETHESDA, Md--Planning for science is "oxymoronic," because you can't plan for results, NCI Director Richard Klausner told the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB). "Instead, you have to plan for facilitating large-scale thinking," he said.
The NCI will try to do just that by establishing an environment in which science can take place. "The NCI Office of Science Policy, headed by Dr. Edward H. Harlow, will be our nerve center for science planning," Dr. Klausner said. "Dr. Harlow will be working over the next year on strategic planning and the formation of new working groups to get us where we need to go."
In his report on the NCI's budget proposal for the 1997/98 fiscal year, Dr. Klausner presented the board with an 80-page booklet, The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research, which gives the proposed bypass budget as well as a history of NCI's progress against cancer and an explanation of NCI's research programs, infrastructure, and opportunities for new investments.
"This booklet is designed to give the President, the Congress, and the people of the United States a glimpse of NCI, who we are, what we are, and how money is handled," he said. [The booklet may be ordered by calling 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).]
Dr. Klausner also explained the steps NCI's intramural program is taking to develop a vaccine against human papil-lomavirus (HPV), which has been identified as the cause of most cases of cervical cancer.
Investigators have found a way to use certain insect cells that produce a high quantity of very immunogenic viral particles, he said. These particles are being used to introduce excellent immune responses to HPV-16, the form of HPV that accounts for about 50% of all HPV infections.
"We will be jumping on this discovery as an immediate opportunity to push through a program for the development of an effective human vaccine for HPV that will act as a systemic means of protection," he said. The researchers plan to come up with a mix that will give people coverage for about 80% of all HPV types.
