February 11, 2000

Representatives from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) conducted a site visit of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) Feb. 7 through 9. The reviewers evaluated the center, which brings together seven Harvard-affiliated institutions involved in cancer research. DF/HCC has submitted an application to receive an NCI Cancer Center Support Grant for $10.3 million a year over five years.

The NCI site visit is a key step in several years of planning for the DF/HCC, a first-of-its-kind consortium linking the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute with the MGH, BWH, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

During the visit, program leaders throughout the Harvard medical community made presentations describing the 18 core facilities that provide services to the center's researchers.

The DF/HCC is designed to strengthen basic, clinical and population sciences research by having the center's 800 members share resources and coordinate efforts in a more efficient manner. The center now has 15 disease- and discipline-based programs — among them viral oncology, cancer cell biology, outcomes research, breast cancer and leukemia.

Dana-Farber has been an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center for the past 26 years. The expansion of the center to encompass the six other institutions was announced in December 1999. The NCI grant would provide partial support for the entire DF/HCC.

Notification about the funding of the grant is expected in April.