PREVENT Cancer Preclinical Drug Development Program (PREVENT)

Image of a scientist preparing genetic samples.

The PREVENT program is a peer-reviewed agent development program designed to support preclinical development of innovative interventions and biomarkers for cancer prevention and interception towards clinical trials. All interested researchers with novel concepts are eligible to apply. PREVENT is not a grant program, but allocates NCI contract resources and expertise to generate data and materials, which are used by the applicants for further development. PREVENT’s current research priority areas include immunoprevention, chemoprevention, and clinically translatable biomarkers.

Read more About PREVENT.

Application Instructions

Submission deadlines occur twice per year on the second Monday in January and July.

Next deadline: Monday, January 10, 2022

Instructions for Applying
Please use the latest application template (DOC, 32 KB). 

Supported Projects

115 Projects from PREVENT Cycles 1 through 20: 

  • 68 Chemoprevention projects
  • 38 Immunoprevention projects
  • 9 Biomarker projects

Read more about supported projects and supported prevention approaches.

Available Resources

  • Efficacy and Intermediate Endpoint Biomarker Work
  • Toxicology and Pharmacology Testing
  • CGMP Production of Vaccines and Biologicals
  • Prime Contractors 2019–2023
  • Animal Models Used by PREVENT

View available resources

Program Administration

  • Governance Structure
  • Technology Transfer Considerations

Learn more about program administration

DCP/PREVENT-funded Project Presentations at AACR Virtual Annual Meeting I, April 9-15 2021

NCI participated in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meetings 2021, held virtually on April 9 - 15, 2021, including presenting research results from PREVENT and Early Phase Clinical Projects.

PREVENT and DCP-funded Early Phase Clinical Projects’ Results Presented at AACR Virtual Annual Meetings 2020 I & II

NCI participated in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meetings 2020, held virtually on April 27 - 28, 2020 (Meeting I) and June 22 - 24, 2020 (Meeting II), including presenting the following research results from PREVENT and Early Phase Clinical Projects.