Abstract
Purpose
To describe the characteristics of National Institutes of Health (NIH) cancer survivorship grants funded over the past 5 years and identify gap areas for future efforts and initiatives.
Methods
Research project grants (RPG) funded during Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 to 2021 focused on cancer survivorship were identified using a text mining algorithm of words from the NIH Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization (RCDC) thesaurus with survivorship-relevant terms. The title, abstract, specific aims, and public health relevance section of each grant were reviewed for eligibility. Grants meeting the eligibility criteria were double coded to extract study characteristics (e.g., grant mechanism, study design, study population).
Results
A total of 586 grants were funded by 14 NIH Institutes from FY2017 to FY2021, and the number of newly funded grants increased each FY, from 68 in 2017 to 105 in 2021. Approximately 60% of all grants included an intervention study, and interventions most often focused on psychosocial or supportive care (32.0%). The most common primary focus of the grants was late- and long-term effects of cancer treatment (46.6%), and least often financial hardship.
Conclusions
The results of this portfolio analysis indicate overall growth in the number and breadth of grants over the last five years, although notable gaps persist.
Implications for Cancer Survivors
This review of current NIH grants suggests a need for expanded research to understand and address survivor needs to ensure that the over 18 million cancer survivors in the United States have optimal quality of life and health outcomes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The list of grants that are the focus of this manuscript will be made available upon request by the corresponding author.
References
Miller KD, et al. Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics. CA Cancer J Clin. 2022;72(5):409–36.
National Cancer Institute. Office of cancer survivorship: definitions. 2020; Available from: https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/ocs/statistics#definitions. Accessed 2 Mar 2023.
Rowland JH, et al. Survivorship Science at the NIH: lessons learned from grants funded in fiscal year 2016. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2019;111(2):109–17.
Gallicchio L, et al. Evidence gaps in cancer survivorship care: a report from the 2019 National Cancer Institute Cancer Survivorship Workshop. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2021;113(9):1136–42.
Mollica MA, et al. Current state of funded National Institutes of Health grants focused on individuals living with advanced and metastatic cancers: a portfolio analysis. J Cancer Surviv. 2021;15(3):370–74.
National Institutes of Health. Types of grant programs. 2023 [cited 2023 March 21]; Available from: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/funding_program.htm.
Rowland JH, Gallicchio L, Mollica M, Saiontz N, Falisi AL. Tesauro G. Survivorship science at the NIH: lessons learned from grants funded in fiscal year 2016. JNCI: J Natl Cancer Inst. 2019;111(2):109–117.
National Cancer Institute. DCCPS response and contribution to the cancer moonshot℠. 2022; Available from: https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/research-emphasis/contribution-to-the-cancer-moonshot#cs. Accessed 8 Apr 2023.
National Cancer Institute. Pediatric and Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Survivorship. 2022 [cited 2022 September 27]; Available from: https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/ocs/special-focus-areas/pediatric-adolescent-and-young-adult-survivorship.
Gallicchio L, et al. Estimation of the numbers of individuals living with metastatic cancer in the United States. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2022.
Bluethmann SM, Mariotto A, Rowland JH. Anticipating the “Silver Tsunami”: prevalence trajectories and comorbidity burden among older cancer survivors in the United States. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev. 2016;25(7):1029–36.
Altice C, et al. Financial hardships experiences by cancer survivors: a systematic review. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2017;109(2):1–17.
National Cancer Institute. Implementation science. 2022 [cited 2022 September 27]; Available from: https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/is.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Michelle Mollica: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing-original draft preparation. Gina Tesauro: Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Writing-review and editing; Lisa Gallicchio, Jennifer Guida, Molly Maher: Formal Analysis, Writing-review and editing; Emily Tonorezos: Conceptualization, Writing-review and editing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Disclaimers
The article was prepared as part of the authors’ official duties as employees of the US Federal Government. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the National Cancer Institute.
This study has not been previously presented.
Conflicts of interest
All authors report no conflicts of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mollica, M.A., Tesauro, G., Gallicchio, L. et al. Survivorship science at the National Institutes of Health 2017-2021. J Cancer Surviv (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01414-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01414-0