Dr. John E. Niederhuber of the National Cancer Institute describes NCI efforts to speed the process of delivering more effective and less toxic interventions to prevent and treat cancer.
Source: National Cancer Institute - HTML NCI Cancer Bulletin for January 10, 2006.
Two efforts aimed at doing just that are the Rapid Access to Interventions Development (RAID) and Rapid Access to Preventive Intervention Development (RAPID) programs. These programs don't provide grants to investigators who apply to the programs; instead, they offer important resources and access to expertise and core services that are essential to the early development of a drug, biologic, or vaccine.
RAID, which operates out of NCI's Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, was launched in 1998 and has provided support and services to more than 100 investigators working on the development of small-molecule drugs and biologics. Of those projects, 13 small-molecule and 11 biologic agents have proceeded to clinical trials.
The services provided through RAID often entail highly specific expertise in areas such as toxicity testing, pharmacodynamics, histopathology, and the production of materials that meet FDA Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards for testing in humans.
A similar program called RAPID has become an important resource for researchers investigating promising chemopreventive agents. Run by NCI's Division of Cancer Prevention, RAPID, although much smaller in scope than RAID, also offers essential services, such as toxicology studies and the development of GMP-grade material, to successful applicants.
At the moment, not nearly as many anticancer agents are reaching patients as quickly as we would like. But successful programs like RAID and RAPID are serving as catalysts for a new generation of interventions that will herald a new era of hope in our efforts to thwart this disease.
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