National Cancer Institute - NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and ...

C A N C E R I M A G I N G P R O G R A M
The role of imaging in cancer research is changing,
and the Cancer Imaging Program is a catalyst for
this transformation.
The Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) of
the Division of Cancer Treatment and
Diagnosis (DCTD) is an innovative
biomedical program that encourages
collaboration among experts in basic,
translational, and clinical research to
advance the understanding of cancer
imaging and to create better diagnosis
and treatment options for patients.
The role of imaging in cancer research
is changing, and CIP is a catalyst for this
transformation. Instead of the past focus
on getting clearer and more detailed
anatomic pictures of organs and tissues,
the primary new thrust is on functional
or molecular imaging, which visualizes
the physiological, cellular, or molecular
processes in living tissues as they take
place. In the next decade, CIP-sponsored
research will not only contribute to the
basic understanding of various cancers,
but will enhance imaging’s clinical role
in noninvasive diagnosis, identification
of disease subsets in patients, disease
staging, and treatment monitoring.
CIP unites in a team approach researchers
from disciplines as diverse as radiology,
bioengineering, biology, chemistry, computer
science, and physics. The program
encourages researchers to integrate and
O V E R V I E W
apply new imaging discoveries and developments
to the study of cancer biology
and to the clinical management of cancer
and cancer risk. Originally formed as the
Dr. Daniel C. Sullivan, Associate Director
Daniel Sullivan, M.D., has had a distinguished career in
the field of radiology, with more than 70 publications in
peer-reviewed journals. His areas of clinical and research
expertise are nuclear medicine and breast imaging, and
he holds certifications in diagnostic and nuclear radiology
from the American Board of Radiology.
Dr. Sullivan joined the DCTD Cancer Imaging Program
as its Associate Director in 1997. He currently heads the
NCI-Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Interagency
Oncology Task Force, the NCI-Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
Interagency Task Force Imaging Subcommittee, and the NCI Imaging Integration
and Implementation (I2) Team. He is also a member of the NCI-CMS Interagency
Task Force, the NCI Bioinformatics I2 Team, the NCI Translational Research Working
Group, the NIH Multiple Principal Investigator Committee, the NIH Bioengineering
Consortium, and the NIH Molecular Libraries and Molecular Imaging
Roadmap Steering Committee. Dr. Sullivan is a member of the editorial board
of the Journal of the Academy of Molecular Imaging.
Dr. Sullivan received an A.B. in 1966 from Brown University and an M.D. in 1970
from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. From 1970 to 1977, he
held several postdoctoral training and fellowship appointments at the Bethesda
Naval Hospital and Yale-New Haven Hospital. From 1977 to 1997, he held faculty
positions at Yale Medical School, Duke University Medical Center, and University
of Pennsylvania Medical Center. In 1996, he was a member of the Project Hope
Assessment Team that coordinated breast cancer detection and treatment
in Poland.
C A N C E R I M A G I N G P R O G R A M ■ 45