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Discovery and Development of Natural Products for Cancer Interception and Prevention (DDNP-CIP)

There are ~500,000 semi-purified products of plants, marine life, and microbes in the NCI Natural Product Collection

The Discovery and Development of Natural Products for Cancer Interception and Prevention Program (DDNP-CIP) supports the discovery and development of new natural products that are safe, non-toxic, and useful for cancer interception and prevention. Given the wide range of chemical diversity found in natural products around the world, they present an opportunity to discover biologically active compounds with unique structures and mechanisms of action. However, only a small percentage of them have been screened and evaluated for their potential in cancer prevention. NCI has one of the most diverse libraries of semi-purified natural product fractions in the world that are readily available to the research community for further testing. DDNP-CIP investigators are using new techniques, including high-throughput screening strategies, to screen natural products for activity in pathways to intercept and prevent cancer.

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About DDNP-CIP

The Discovery and Development of Natural Products for Cancer Interception and Prevention (DDNP-CIP) Program’s overall research objectives are to:

  • Identify and select clinically relevant cancer interception and prevention pathways and targets in natural products;
  • Develop robust high-throughput screening strategies and specific cell-based and/or cell-free assays to screen non-toxic natural agents;
  • Screen, purify, and identify the structure of active natural compounds;
  • Develop models that could be used to guide the selection of preventive agents active in assays.

The flow chart below shows the steps for discovery and development of natural products for cancer prevention The National Cancer Institute supports the process across divisions and the NCI Program for Natural Product Discovery (NPNPD). In addition, the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) supports this process.

Flow chart of the DDNP-CIP
The research may use a design along the continuum (such as clinically relevant cancer interception target selection and verification in both preclinical in vivo and clinical samples, assay development or validation, prototype high-throughput screening (HTS), pilot and full scale HTS using NCI libraries with greater than 500,000 semi-purified NP samples or investigator owned libraries, optimization of drug leads (through medicinal chemistry efforts), purification and structural elucidation of active natural compounds, secondary screening, in vivo testing, and dose optimization) with the NCI DCP, DCTD or NCATS support. Once promising interventions with in vivo efficacies and lack of toxicities are identified, these natural agents can enter the NCI PREVENT pipeline for advanced preclinical development followed by moving to clinical trials through CP-CTNet program.


Investigators in the Discovery and Development of Natural Products for Cancer Interception and Prevention take advantage of NCI’s large library of “ready-to-screen,” pre-fractionated natural products to speed up bioassay-directed isolation and characterization of potential prevention agents. New natural agents discovered will move to the existing advanced preclinical development program, PREVENT, for further development towards early phase cancer prevention clinical trials by the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network.

Funding Opportunity

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Grantee Details

PI Name Sort descending PI Organization Title Grant Number Program Official
Smith, Jennifer Susan

Univ Of North Carolina Chapel Hill
United States

UNC CASCADE Network Research Base 5UG1CA275403-04 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Smith, Ellen Mary Lavoie

University Of Alabama At Birmingham
United States

Duloxetine to Prevent Oxaliplatin-Induced Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase II to Phase III Study 5R01CA235726-07 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Smith, Ellen Mary Lavoie

University Of Alabama At Birmingham
United States

Duloxetine to Prevent Oxaliplatin-Induced Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase II to Phase III Study 5R01CA235726-07 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Sohl, Stephanie Jean

Wake Forest University Health Sciences
United States

REmotely-delivered Supportive Programs for Improving surgical pain and disTrEss (RESPITE) 5R01CA266995-04 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Sohl, Stephanie Jean

Wake Forest University Health Sciences
United States

REmotely-delivered Supportive Programs for Improving surgical pain and disTrEss (RESPITE) 5R01CA266995-04 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Somers, Tamara J

Duke University
United States

A Mobile Health Behavioral Pain Intervention Protocol for Breast Cancer Patients with Pain in Medically Underserved Communities: A Randomized Controlled Trial 5R01CA237892-05 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Somers, Tamara J

Duke University
United States

A Mobile Health Behavioral Pain Intervention Protocol for Breast Cancer Patients with Pain in Medically Underserved Communities: A Randomized Controlled Trial 5R01CA237892-05 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Song, Ming

University Of Louisville
United States

Dietary fructose and NASH/HCC progression 5R21CA290420-02 Amit Kumar, Ph.D.
Sorror, Mohamed

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
United States

Novel Intervention Approaches to Alleviate Allogeneic Transplant-Related Morbidity and Mortality 5R01CA227092-06 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Sorror, Mohamed

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
United States

Novel Intervention Approaches to Alleviate Allogeneic Transplant-Related Morbidity and Mortality 5R01CA227092-06 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Sorror, Mohamed

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
United States

Novel Intervention Approaches to Alleviate Allogeneic Transplant-Related Morbidity and Mortality 5R01CA227092-06 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Spector, Tim

King'S College London
United States

PROSPECT: Pathways, Risk factors, and mOleculeS to Prevent Early-onset Colorectal Tumors 1OT2CA297289-01 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Spiegel, Brennan

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
United States

Randomized Controlled Trial of Virtual Reality for GI Cancer Pain to Improve Patient Reported Outcomes 5R01CA252211-05 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Spiegel, Brennan

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
United States

Randomized Controlled Trial of Virtual Reality for GI Cancer Pain to Improve Patient Reported Outcomes 5R01CA252211-05 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Stachler, Matthew D

University Of California, San Francisco
United States

Optimization and validation of a biomarker panel for risk stratification in Barrett's esophagus 3R37CA269649-03S1 Matthew Young, Ph.D.

A pre-application webinar was held on May 5, 2023, and recorded. The next application due date is June 13, 2025. 

Program Contact(s)

Altaf Mohammed, Ph.D. 
Email: altaf.mohammed@nih.gov