U.S. Begins Molecular Cancer Study
Federal health officials Tuesday launched the biggest genetic research project since the landmark mapping of the human genome–an ambitious effort to categorize all the hundreds of molecular glitches that turn normal healthy cells into cancers.
The Cancer Genome Atlas, whose total cost could reach $1 billion or more, will for the first time direct the full force of sophisticated genetic technologies to the thorough understanding of a single disease, one that eventually strikes nearly half of all Americans.
Leaders of the National Institutes of Health, which will administer the project through grants and contracts, predicted it would revolutionize the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer, which will kill 564,000 Americans this year.
NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute and the National Cancer Institute will provide $100 million for a three-year pilot project to test the project’s feasibility.