American Cancer Society Awards New Research and Training Grants

(3BL Media) Atlanta, GA - April 17, 2012 – The American Cancer Society, the largest non-government, not-for-profit funding source of cancer research in the United States, has awarded 135 national research and training grants totaling $51,965,000 to investigators at 93 institutions nationwide in one of two grants cycles for 2012. Of the grants, 113 are new and 22 are renewals of previous grants. All the grants go into effect July 1, 2012.

For more than 60 years, the American Cancer Society has funded research and training of health professionals to investigate the causes, prevention, and early detection of cancer, as well as new treatments, cancer survivorship, and end of life support for patients and their families. Since its founding in 1946, the American Cancer Society’s extramural research grants program has devoted more than $3.5 billion to cancer research and has funded 46 researchers who have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. 

Click here for a list of all award winners.

The American Cancer Society’s research and training program emphasizes investigator-initiated, peer-reviewed proposals, and has supported groundbreaking research that has led to critical discoveries leading to a better understanding of cancer and cancer treatment. Grant applications are ranked on the basis of merit by one of several discipline-specific Peer Review Committees, each of which includes 12 to 25 scientific advisors or expert reviewers. The Council for Extramural Grants, a committee of senior scientists, recommends funding based on the relative merit of the applications, the amount of available funds, and the Society's objectives. No member of the American Cancer Society's Board of Directors or National Assembly may serve on a Peer Review Committee or as a voting member on the Council for Extramural Grants.

The Council for Extramural Grants also approved 121 research grant applications that could not be funded due to budgetary constraints. These “pay-if” grants represent work that passed the Society’s multi-disciplinary review process but go beyond the Society’s current funding resources, and which will be funded if additional monies become available.  These grants serve as an important reminder that there continues to be promising research that cannot with current resources. For more information about the American Cancer Society Research Program, please visit http://www.cancer.org/research.