The National Program for Cancer Chemotherapy

In 1955, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) established a national program for cancer chemotherapy.1At that time several drugs could effect transient remissions in widespread cancer. However, exploitation of these drug-induced remissions was not possible because the resources required were beyond the capacity of existing instrumentalities, such as the universities and pharmaceutical industry. The intent in 1955 was to organize a drug development program on a valid scientific base, but this could not be done until the precise correlation of drug effects in animals and man was known. Establishment and calibration of the appropriate models took ten years, and based on these correlations, in 1965 NCI instituted its present operation of drug development.1Since 1965, NCI has refined this empiric blueprint as dictated by experience and new data.2,3The correlations were also used for the definition of the theoretical problems of chemical control of cancer.1The