Imaging

Imaging

Advances in medical imaging—from positron emission tomography to three-dimensional CT scans—are greatly improving disease and injury diagnosis and monitoring, while becoming less invasive and harmful to patients.

Key Initiatives

The Biomarkers Consortium

This groundbreaking initiative expands the science of personalized medicine. The study of biomarkers creates the potential to individualize medical treatment by determining how a drug works in the body and identifying patients likely to respond to targeted medicines and therapies.

Key Initiatives

I-SPY 2: Investigation of Serial Studies to Predict Your Therapeutic Response with Imaging and Molecular Analysis

The I-SPY 2 trial employs a groundbreaking clinical trial model that uses genetic or biological markers (“biomarkers”) from individual patients’ tumors to screen promising new treatments, identifying which treatments are most effective in specific types of patients.

Program

Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI)

First described more than 100 years ago, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has no cure or lasting, effective treatment. Currently, more than 5 million people in the United States suffer from it and its incidence is projected to increase dramatically over the next 20 years.

Program

Imaging Database Resources Initiative (IDRI)

Imaging software analysis of digital data collected by X-ray CT, MRI, CT and PET is increasingly central to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. New software methods for interpreting and managing this information must be evaluated in a more standardized manner to ensure their optimum performance.

Program

Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI)

Osteoarthritis—the most common form of arthritis—is a degenerative joint disease, and the major cause of physical limitations and disability in older people. Today, 35 million people (13 percent of the U.S. population) are 65 and older, and more than half of them have clear evidence of osteoarthritis in at least one joint. By 2030, 20 percent of Americans (about 70 million people) will have passed their 65th birthday and will be at risk for osteoarthritis.

Programs in Development

Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) II

The most common type of arthritis, osteoarthritis affects over 15 million people in the United States. Working in collaboration, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the and the private sector are striving to improve the efficiency of drug development and clinical trials for the treatment of osteoarthritis.

Past Programs

Avon-NCI Progress for Patients (PFP)

The Avon-NCI Progress for Patients Awards Program, completed in 2009, made a significant impact on breast cancer research, accelerating the movement of pre-clinical discoveries to application in patients, and fostering collaborative efforts that optimized resources and efficiencies.