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U.S. National Institutes of Health

Welcome to the Cancer Diagnosis Program

The Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP) strives to improve the diagnosis and assessment of cancer by effectively moving new scientific knowledge into clinical practice. This national program stimulates, co-ordinates and funds resources and research on diagnostics and improved technologies to better characterize cancers to guide the choice of treatment as well as to evaluate the response to treatment.

On October 1, 2012, the Cancer Diagnosis Program welcomed its new branch, the Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research Branch or BBRB, formerly known as the Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (OBBR). Visit the BBRB site for more information and valuable resources.

Clinical Assay Development Program (CADP)

The CADP is designed to identify promising tests, assess the needs for further development, and provide services to facilitate optimization of analytical performance and to establish clinical validity so that the clinical utility of the assay can be evaluated in well-designed clinical studies. More…

Strategic Partnering to Evaluate Cancer Signatures (SPECS)

The SPECS program consists of a group of grants that support multi-institutional, multidisciplinary research teams. The program leverages NCI's investment in cancer clinical trials, cancer centers, NCI intramural programs, and the Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) program. The projects include collaborations with biotechnology companies, community hospitals, national laboratories, and academic institutions in the United States, Canada, and Europe. More…