Sadly, cancer has devastated the lives of millions of people and today, this disease continues to strike people of all ages, lifestyles, genders, races, and income levels. With this grant listed as Funding Opportunity Number PA-08-267, applicants would have a wonderful opportunity to get involved until September 7, 2012. The grant is being promoted through the Department of Education and the Department of Health with an award ceiling of $200,000.
As a part of the ongoing fight against cancer, the “Exploratory Studies in Cancer Detection, Diagnosis, and Prognosis (R21)” grant, organizations and institutions would have the opportunity to develop but also test innovative methods for detecting, diagnosing, and understanding the prognosis of cancer. Although research would cover many areas, the primary focus would be in identifying, developing, and testing methods that would make the detection of cancer more accurate and effective.
With this, the research would make it possible for different characteristics of this disease to be detected, which in turn would make clinical management of people with the disease better. However, with this focus, experts believe the information would also help in reducing risk of developing cancer. To accomplish this, it would be essential for the research to look at unique characteristics of tumors, pre-malignant, and normal tissues to identify differences at the cellular and molecular levels.
From there, the differences would be correlated with clinical parameters, which ultimately would aid in the process of getting needed answers for the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of cancer. This particular grant is unique in that so much of the focus will be on early and conceptual states of different research projects. Over the years, the one area that has remained a challenge is getting necessary support for early studies because most are exploratory. Because of this, the studies have a history of not being developed on a sufficient level and even thought of as too high risk.
However, with this new grant, the goal is for it to serve as a foundation so future clinical research could be planned more efficiently. This particular grant will also involve research and studies to support new ideas, as well as in-depth preliminary information that could be used as evidence in the detection, diagnosis, and prognosis of this horrific disease. Without doubt, for better screening of cancer and more effective risk assessment for pathologic characters of malignant tumors and disease prognosis, it is essential for new laboratory assays and biomarkers to be developed.
With this grant being a partnership between the Division of Cancer Prevention and the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, hope is high for an excellent outcome. A few examples of the topics that would be deemed appropriate and goals for this grant include the following:
• Innovative approaches to clinical questions pertaining to the adoption, adaptation, and optimization of assays and techniques. For instance, laboratory assays would need to use people with cancer and comparison of assay formats would be critical.
• Translational studies would need to be supported to help identify promising new ways to detect and diagnosis cancer. With this, early but also critical information would be available whereby the course of action could be justified.
• Pursue new clinical insights
• Provide rationale in proposing an assay or biomarker for addressing a specific and serious clinical issue
Applicants that would be eligible for applying for this grant would include the following:
• Governments
• State
• County
• City/Township
• Native American Tribal (Federally Recognized)
• Education
• Special Districts
• Independent School Districts
• Public and State-Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
• Private Institutions of Higher Education
• Organizations and Authorities
• Native American Tribal Organizations (Non-Federally Recognized)
• Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
• Non-Profit Organizations with and without 501(c)(3) status with the IRS (excluding institutions of higher education)
• For Profit Organization (Excluding Small Businesses)
• Small businesses
• Miscellaneous
• Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
• Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
• Faith or Community-Based Organizations
• Historically Black Colleges/Universities
• Hispanic-Serving Institutions
• Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Non-Federally Recognized)
• Non-Domestic (Non-US) Entities (Foreign Organizations)
• Regional Organizations
• Tribally-Controlled Colleges/Universities
• US Territory/Possession
Before applying, the applicant would need to register on the government grant website a minimum of four weeks prior to submitting the application. Then, SF424 application package and SF424 application guide can be downloaded by visiting the government grant website at http://www.grants.gov/apply.
