American entrepreneur, Franklin Salisbury, established the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) in 1973. Salisbury read that Hungarian biochemist, Albert Szent-Gyorgi, 1937 Nobel Prize winner for the identification of Vitamin C and the co-discovery of the Krebs Cycle, was struggling to fund research into cancer cell growth. Salisbury sent him a check for US$25 and was so overwhelmed to receive a personal letter of thanks from Szent-Gyorgi that he not only provided substantial funding for his work, but also decided to establish a philanthropic fund to support other basic cancer researchers.
Since 1973, NFCR has provided over US$170 million to support “cutting edge” cancer research at more than 100 universities and research hospitals in many countries. NFCR Project Directors are internationally recognized leaders in basic science cancer research. We believe that by supporting the best ideas of the best minds and facilitating collaboration among all scientists, advances in one field will contribute to discoveries in another.
NFCR Makes a Difference in the “War Against Cancer” by Supporting Basic Science Cancer Research in the Laboratory
“Research for a Cure” is the shared goal and mission of all the Project Directors of NFCR's “laboratory without walls”. Instead of focusing on stopgap remedies that only treat the symptoms associated with cancer, the NFCR and its Project Directors seek to understand, prevent, and cure cancer through basic science research. And the discoveries have led to better prevention, earlier diagnostic techniques, and new treatments.
Cancer is a molecular disease that originates in the genes where dangerous proteins mutate to generate cancerous cell growth. Gene by gene, protein by protein, NFCR scientists are discovering how cancer starts and why it spreads. Basic science cancer research in the laboratory is where our greatest hope for a cure to cancer will come. NFCR stands with our Project Directors at the very forefront of the “War Against Cancer”.
NFCR — Research for a Cure
NFCR funds knowledge to drive discovery and innovation, and NFCR is a catalyst for breakthroughs in basic science cancer research where the cures for cancer are most likely to be found. Based on the belief that cancer cannot be understood by a single approach, NFCR fosters discovery-oriented research in such diverse fields as chemistry, biophysics, biochemical and molecular pharmacology, carcinogenesis, molecular/cellular biology and genetics, computational chemistry and protein chemistry, enzymology and immunology. NFCR's support of basic science cancer research for over a quarter of a century is responsible for many important discoveries, breakthroughs in the prevention, diagnosis, and new treatments of all types of cancer — including breast and prostate cancer. The following lists examples of the discoveries made possible by NFCR's funding.
Bruce N. Ames, PhD, at University of California at Berkeley, developed a simple, inexpensive, and rapid screening test for detecting mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds and identified the cause and effect relationships for oxidative DNA damage. These findings have been translated into intelligible public policy recommendations on diet and cancer risk.
Cesar Milstein, PhD, at Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, discovered how to make monoclonal antibodies and developed new methods to produce humanized antibodies suitable for tumor therapy. Several drugs, such as Herceptin for breast cancer and Rituxan for non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, are derived from this discovery. Many drugs are now on clinical trials and likely to be approved by the FDA soon.
Curt I. Civin, MD, at Johns Hopkins University, discovered the DC34+ protein on the surface of hematopoietic stem cells that identifies those among the differentiated blood cells in bone marrow.
Bert Vogelstein and members of his Molecular Genetics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University led research on the tumor suppressor gene, p53, mutations of which are implicated in over half of all human cancers. The p53 gene has become the most studied gene in medicine.
Stephen J. Benkovic, PhD, at Pennsylvania State University, has researched transformylase enzymes which are targets for new chemotherapeutic agents against a variety of solid tumors. There are several compounds based on transformylase in advanced stage clinical trials to treat tumors.
Hector F. Deluca, MD, at the University of Wisconsin, has developed vitamin D compounds which are used in the prevention of development of multiple sclerosis and effective in prevention of transplant rejection — unexpected discoveries from cancer research. Now, these vitamin D compounds have entered clinical trials in human patients for both diseases.
Raymond V. Damadian, MD, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, developed Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines from nuclear magnetic resonance imaging technology used in chemistry and biochemistry for the study of chemical structures in solution or fine suspension. MRI scanning is now widely used in the early detection of cancer in patients, thus improving response to treatment.
Graham W. Richards, DSc, at Oxford University, studies applications of theoretical chemistry to problems in molecular biophysics and drug design with an emphasis on anticancer drugs and has developed many softwares, including the new structure-activity method, SOMFA (Self-Organizing Molecular Field Analysis), which are being adopted by researchers as the standard in the pharmaceutical industry.
Harold F. Dvorak, MD, at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center of Harvard Medical School, discovered the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein responsible for tumor blood vessel formation. Virtually all pharmaceutical companies worldwide are now developing VEGF inhibitors to prevent tumors from generating new blood vessels and thereby inhibiting tumor growth and causing tumor regression.
Danny Welch, PhD, at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, has discovered two genes — KiSS1 and BRMS1 — responsible suppressing the uncontrolled spread of melanoma and breast cancer.
Kathryn Horowitz, PhD, at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, has discovered progesterone receptors in breast cancer which are markers of hormone dependence and the indicators of disease prognosis. Patients with breast cancer now routinely have their tumors assayed for the presence of progesterone receptors, which guides their physician's decisions about the kind of therapy the patient should get.
Wayne A. Marasco, MD, PhD, at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute of Harvard Medical School, developed the intrabody technology for the treatment of HIV infection in AIDS and adult T-cell leukemia. This technology has been licensed to a biotechnology company, Chiron, which is conducting clinical gene therapy trials for treating HIV infection.
Helmut Sies, MD, at Heinrich Heine University, discovered that lycopenes in tomatoes prevent oxidation and have significant anticancer effects, especially in the processed or heated form, which allows lycopenes to be more easily absorbed by the human body. Clinical trials with lycopenes are now underway to prevent prostate cancer.
Challenge and Hope in Fighting Cancer
NFCR's sustained support of cancer research is paying off, and there has never been a more exciting time for new anticancer therapies. NFCR is poised to begin the new millennium by not only continuing its support of cutting edge basic science cancer research in the laboratory, but by launching an initiative to help translate these breakthroughs in the laboratory to cancer patients.
Besides funding the individual Project Directors at various universities, institutions, and hospitals, NFCR has created an international network of research centers in leading universities and research hospitals that seek to foster synergistic interactions between scientists whose laboratories share a common goal: a cure for cancer.
The NFCR's Research Centers identified the top five vital areas where challenges in cancer research remain. At each of these NFCR Centers, top scientists are coming together to tackle core problems in cancer research:
NFCR Center for Genomics and Nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley;
NFCR Center for Molecular Analysis and Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital;
NFCR Center for Computational Drug Design at the University of Oxford;
NFCR Center for Protein Chemistry at Yale University; and
NFCR Center for Molecular Oncology at the Institute for Medicinal Biotechnology in Beijing.
One of the major obstacles to breakthroughs in cancer research is the way that most fundings for cancer research tie the hands of scientists. For over 25 years, NFCR has rejected the status quo by specializing in flexible funding, which allows scientists to explore ideas that might otherwise have been delayed until they could attract funding by capturing data for their hypotheses.
With the new NFCR Research Center Initiative, NFCR is expanding the flexibility of its funding even further. NFCR has established a fully flexible system whereby each Research Center may use NFCR funding to explore any pioneering concept within the center. As many scientists have attested, NFCR's flexible funding has allowed scientists in the centers' laboratories to move quickly to pursue promising leads arising from unexpected observations or new ideas.
Curing cancer may or may not be at hand, but it is evident that basic science research has put investigators on target for the first time in history. Basic science remains the only hope for victory in curing cancer. Visit our website at www.nfcr.org for more exciting cancer research programs we are funding.
From left to right: Dr. Bruce N. Ames, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and Dr. Martin Smyth, professor of toxicology, both at the University of California at Berkley, join Dr. Harold Dvorak, chief of pathology at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard University in discussing the future of gene medicine and its relation to finding a cure for cancer.
From left to right: Heather Dahley, mother of the first in utero gene therapy to repair Severe Combined Immune Deficiency Syndrome in her son, Taylor; Carol Anne Deameret, the mother of David Vetter, the boy in the bubble; Kevin Klug, a survivor of glioblastoma, a form of brain surgery due to gene therapy; and Ashanthi De Silva and Cynthia Cutshall, the first two gene therapy patients in history gather for a historic photo at this year's 10th anniversary of the first gene therapy clinical trials sponsored by the NFCR.