A National Map of NCI-Designated Cancer Center Catchment Areas on the 50th Anniversary of the Cancer Centers Program.

BACKGROUND: In 1971, the National Cancer Act created a process to recognize the leadership, facilities, and research efforts at cancer centers throughout the United States. Toward this goal, each NCI-designated cancer center defines and describes a catchment area to which they tailor specific scientific and community engagement activities. METHODS: The geographically defined catchment areas of 63 NCI-designated comprehensive and clinical cancer centers are collated and presented visually. In addition, the NCI-designated cancer center catchment areas are geographically linked with publicly available data sources to aggregate sociodemographic and epidemiologic characteristics across the NCI Cancer Centers Program. RESULTS: The national map portrays the size, shape, and locations for 63 catchment areas of the 71 NCI-designated cancer centers. The findings illustrate the geographic extent of the NCI Cancer Centers Program during the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act. CONCLUSIONS: NCI-designated cancer centers occupy a prominent role in the cancer control ecosystem and continue to perform research to address the burden of cancer among their local communities. The strength of the NCI Cancer Centers Program is partly defined by the scope, quality, and impact of community outreach and engagement activities in the catchment areas. IMPACT: The collation and geographic presentation of the distinct, but complementary, NCI-designated cancer center catchment areas are intended to support future research and community outreach activities among NCI-designated cancer centers. See related commentary by Vadaparampil and Tiro, p. 952.

Formation of microvascular networks in vitro.

This protocol describes how to form a 3D cell culture with explicit, endothelialized microvessels. The approach leads to fully enclosed, perfusable vessels in a bioremodelable hydrogel (type I collagen). The protocol uses microfabrication to enable user-defined geometries of the vascular network and microfluidic perfusion to control mass transfer and hemodynamic forces. These microvascular networks (µVNs) allow for multiweek cultures of endothelial cells or cocultures with parenchymal or tissue cells in the extra-lumen space. The platform enables real-time fluorescence imaging of living engineered tissues, in situ confocal fluorescence of fixed cultures and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging of histological sections. This protocol enables studies of basic vascular and blood biology, provides a model for diseases such as tumor angiogenesis or thrombosis and serves as a starting point for constructing prevascularized tissues for regenerative medicine. After one-time microfabrication steps, the system can be assembled in less than 1 d and experiments can run for weeks.