By Helene G. Brown, Chair, Research Awards Committee

The peer review program of STOP CANCER follows the model used by the National Institutes of Health and many of the major research funding agencies, organizations and institutions.

The purpose of peer review is to evaluate and rate the scientific and technical merit of the proposed research or training, the requests for funding by STOP CANCER go through multiple steps before final awards are made.

Initially, the STOP CANCER Finance Committee determines the number of grants they recommend for funding and present their recommendations to the STOP CANCER Board of Directors, who review and approve the number of research career development awards that will be given out that year.

Then, the Directors of the National Cancer Institute (NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers located at City of Hope, UCLA and USC) in Los Angeles make known to their eligible and promising young investigators and throughout each of the centers that STOP CANCER awards applications are available.

The applications of the investigators seeking STOP CANCER support for their peers within their own institutions review their research ideas/hypotheses and training. The internal review committee of each cancer center sends their decisions to their Cancer Center Director.

The directors review the chosen submissions of their individual centers. The final choices for funding from each center are then sent to the STOP CANCER Research Awards Committee. The Research Awards Committee receives the research proposals, the resumes (curriculum vitae) of the investigators and their history of accomplishment. The Research Awards Committee then approves the grants and the awardees or makes known their questions or concerns relative to an unapproved applicant. If an applicant is not approved the Cancer Center Director is asked to replace that applicant and proposal with another whose proposal has been internally juried. The Research Awards Committee then reviews the new application for approval. The Research Awards Committee sends its final report to the STOP CANCER office.

Finally, the report of the Research Awards Committee is passed to the Board. The Research Career Development Awards are made at the Annual Awards Dinner.

The peer-reviewed awards are competitive in that they are not directed to any particular research program nor are they in response to a request by any donor. They are investigator initiated ideas/ hypotheses proposed by young investigators to forward the cause of the control of cancer.

STOP CANCER does seek and accept contributions made by donors who designate to support certain investigators or programs of research at the NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. These awards are not submitted to the STOP CANCER peer review system. However, it must be noted that the cancer centers are peer-reviewed periodically by the external review committees of the National Cancer Institute in order to evaluate and rate their programs, faculty and staff. Thus, those offering a designated contribution have the knowledge that a peer review of their donor-directed contribution to a program or investigator has been accomplished. Donor-designated awards are made in addition to and not in place of any of the basic young investigator awards of STOP CANCER that must be peer reviewed by the STOP CANCER Research Awards Committee.