September 25, 2013 – (BRONX, NY) – For the past four decades, scientists and clinicians at Albert Einstein Cancer Center (AECC) have made major contributions to research on many aspects of the cancer problem. With the recent renewal of the center’s $16.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), AECC members will continue to investigate the underlying causes of cancer and new approaches to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these diseases.

I. David Goldman, M.D.“Our faculty is pleased and proud to have competed so favorably in the peer-review process that resulted in the renewal of this grant, particularly at a time of diminishing NCI support for cancer research,” said I. David Goldman, M.D., director of AECC at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Dr. Goldman is also professor of medicine and of molecular pharmacology and holds the Susan Resnick Fisher Chair at Einstein.

AECC was one of the first academic cancer research centers to receive an NCI designation, which it has held since 1972. Currently, there are 68 such centers throughout the United States. Since AECC’s creation, its researchers have made notable fundamental scientific discoveries that have elucidated why cancers form, grow and spread. AECC’s clinical scientists are developing novel approaches to cancer treatment and the center’s epidemiologists are making major contributions to the understanding of the viral and other environmental causes of cancer and its prevention. AECC is a national resource for these studies given the diverse ethnic and racial populations in the Bronx.

“Our faculty is pleased and proud to have competed so favorably in the peer-review process that resulted in the renewal of this grant, particularly at a time of diminishing NCI support for cancer research.”

-- I. David Goldman, M.D.

This grant will provide continued support for five ongoing interdisciplinary research programs that form the basis of AECC’s laboratory and translational work: tumor microenvironment and metastasis; stem cells, differentiation and cancer; experimental therapeutics; cancer epidemiology; and the biology of colon cancer. These research programs are supported by 14 specialized shared resource facilities that range from genomics and proteomics to biostatistics and bioinformatics. AECC also provides comprehensive support for, and oversight of, its clinical cancer research activities conducted at the Montefiore-Einstein Center for Cancer Care.

AECC has more than 150 faculty members from 18 academic departments. These scientists are supported by 82 NCI grants and more than 100 other cancer relevant peer-reviewed grants.