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DCTD Overview

The Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) supports scientifically sound, high-risk research that may yield great benefits for patients with cancer, but are too difficult or risky for industry or academia to pursue. This includes a particular emphasis on the development of distinct molecular signatures for cancer, refined molecular assays, and state-of-the-art imaging techniques that will guide oncologic therapy in the future. 

Mission Statement

The DCTD mission is to support the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for cancer by expediting the initial and subsequent large-scale testing of new agents, biomarkers, imaging tests, and other diagnostic and therapeutic interventions (radiation, surgery, immunotherapy) in pre-clinical studies and in cancer patients.

DCTD's Programs and Offices

The division has nine major programs and a clinic that work together to bring unique molecules, diagnostic tests, and therapeutic interventions from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside:

  • Biometric Research Program: Provides state-of-the-art statistical, computational, and systems biology analyses for DCTD and other NCI components.
  • Cancer Diagnosis Program: Stimulates, coordinates, and funds specimen resources, databases related to those specimens, and research on diagnostics and improved technologies to better characterize tumors.
  • Cancer Imaging Program: Uses new technologies to expand the role of imaging in noninvasive diagnosis, identification of disease subsets in patients, disease staging, and treatment monitoring.
  • Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program: Leads NCI’s efforts to support a broad portfolio of innovative trials across diverse networks. The program administers the NCI National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) and the Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN), among others, that unite researchers around the nation and the world in the pursuit of distinctive and effective new treatments to improve the lives of patients with cancer.
  • Developmental Therapeutics Clinic: Conducts innovative early-phase clinical trials to facilitate the development of new treatments for patients with advanced cancer.
  • Developmental Therapeutics Program: Serves as a vital resource in discovering potential cancer therapeutics and acquiring preclinical development information. The program provides research materials and manufactures new agents in bulk quantities for use in investigational new drug (IND)-directed studies.
  • Radiation Research Program: Provides expertise to investigators who perform novel radiotherapy research and assists in establishing future radiation research directions.
  • Translational Research Program: Translates novel scientific discoveries from the laboratory and/or population studies to the clinic for testing in humans with cancer and determines the biological basis for clinical observations.
  • Office of Cancer Clinical Proteomics Research: Supports the development, advancement and application of proteomics and proteogenomics research to expand our understanding of cancer, develop novel cancer diagnostics and therapies, and provide proteogenomics data and resources to the scientific community.
  • Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Aims to increase the amount of high-quality cancer research and information about the use of complementary and alternative modalities.
  • Office of the Director: Supports and coordinates DCTD leadership activities, budgets, and scientific collaborations with internal and external stakeholders.

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