In her first public speech as NCI director, Monica Bertagnolli said that under her stewardship NCI would modernize clinical trials and double patient accrual.
“Yesterday, I went to sleep as acting NCI director, and this morning, as I woke up, I have a new boss, Monica Bertagnolli,” Douglas R. Lowy said in the morning of Oct. 3, addressing a well-caffeinated meeting of the Association of American Cancer Institutes.
Drawing on Charles Dickens, NCI Acting Director Douglas Lowy has a teaching moment for oncology: we live in the best of times as well as the worst of times, because only fragments of human society—both in the United States and in low- and middle-income countries—fully benefit from modern cancer care.
As NCI prepares for a transition of leadership, Acting Director Douglas Lowy is setting out an agenda focused on multi-cancer detection tests, undruggable targets, cell therapy, and on eliminating disparities caused by persistent poverty.
In the next phase of the Cancer Moonshot, NCI will focus on investing in the development and testing of new modalities, including multi-cancer early detection assays, and fostering diversity in oncology, NCI Acting Director Douglas R. Lowy said at a joint meeting of the Board Of Scientific Advisors and the National Cancer Advisory Board.
Worry not, because support for cancer research remains strong, NCI Director Ned Sharpless said, even as the institute stalls in its attempts to increase paylines in fiscal year 2022 and as the White House requests a nearly $200 million cutto the FY23 NCI budget.
President Joe Biden’s new national goal for the reignited Cancer Moonshot—to cut today’s age-adjusted cancer mortality rates by at least 50% before 2050—is bold, but achievable, said NCI Director Ned Sharpless.
NCI is temporarily reducing its paylines as the federal government is being funded at FY2021 levels via another continuing resolution, delaying the budgeting process for most federal agencies in the new fiscal year.
The National Cancer Act of 1971 established an unprecedented government-wide plan to eradicate a major disease, creating institutions that have no equivalent in other therapeutic areas and galvanizing the nationwide conversation about cancer.
NCI is asking for an appropriation of $7.8 billion for fiscal year 2023—about $800 million above the House’s FY22 proposed budget for NCI.
