New Joint FDA/NCI Cancer Program

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) inaugurated a new program in July that willintegrate the study of all proteins in living cells (or proteomics) with patientcare. 

"This new approach to treatment holds the potential to revolutionizecancer detection and care," said Health and Human Services Secretary TommyG. Thompson. The agency collaboration is being led by Emanuel Petricoin, PhD, ofthe FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and Lance Liotta, MD,PhD, of NCI’s Center for Cancer Research. 

The Clinical Proteomics Program willbe funded for 3 years at $1.1 million per year. Drs. Petricoin and Liotta haveidentified more than 130 proteins in cancers of the breast, ovary, prostate, andesophagus that change in amount as the cells in these tissues grow abnormally,which may provide new means of diagnosing and treating cancers earlier. The NCIhas recently begun clinical trials using proteomics to help make decisions aboutthe course of a patient’s experimental treatment.