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Last Updated: 10/25/2017

DCTD’s Cancer Imaging Program Celebrates 20th Anniversary

October 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of DCTD’s Cancer Imaging Program (CIP). For two decades, CIP has strived to advance the understanding of cancer through imaging. CIP works to improve diagnosis and treatment options for patients in two key ways:

  • Supporting basic and applied research in cancer imaging
  • Promoting imaging during clinical trials

Notable accomplishments over the past 20 years

  • Established the following:
    • American College of Radiology Network (ACRIN) — Now merged with the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) to form ECOG-ACRIN, this group designs research focusing on biomarkers for participants who have or are at risk of developing cancer.
    • Network for Translational Research (NTR) — Develops, optimizes, and validates imaging technology for use in clinical trials and eventually clinical practice.
    • Quantitative Imaging Network (QIN) — Supports development of imaging methods to measure response to cancer therapies.
    • Image Guided Drug Delivery in Cancer (IGDD) — Supports investigators that assess imaging methods used in optimizing local delivery of therapeutic drugs to target tissues.
    • Early Phase Clinical Trials in Imaging and Image Guided Interventions — Supports investigators conducting preliminary evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of imaging agents, as well as assessments of other image-guided procedures.
  • Supported key underfunded research:
    • Small Animal Imaging Resource Programs (SAIRPs): Observe physiological and pathological processes of cancer tissues in an intact, living system through use of small animal models.
    • In vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Centers (ICMICs): Study cancer non-invasively and gain a greater understanding of new cancer growths in humans through imaging.
  • Administers The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) External Link
    • A freely accessible catalog of cancer-specific medical images (positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)) for the imaging research community and the public to use as test material for technology development, teaching tools for students, and other purposes.

In the Next Decade

CIP will continue to support the application of imaging to cancer research, thereby creating innovative ways to:

  • improve diagnosis
  • stage disease and monitor treatment
  • establish imaging as a crucial component to the development of new therapies

CIP looks forward to future medical imaging challenges as opportunities for research innovation and supporting the focus of DCTD, which is to develop diagnostics and therapies for cancer patients.