AICR Milestones

By mmccarn

  • AICR founded to increase awareness of the dietcancerlink described in the landmark NationalAcademy of Sciences report, Diet, Nutritionand Cancer. First AICR dietary healthguidelines developed.

  • AICR begins funding laboratory research andawards its first research grants.

  • AICR awards first of several education grants tothe Vincent T. Lombardi Cancer Research Centerat Georgetown University Medical Center tosupport the startup of the Breast Health CareResource Center.

  • AICR’s free newsletter, which is mailed quarterlyto supporters, reaches one million subscribers.

  • Much of what we know today about how and whyactivity lowers cancer risk can be traced to thelaboratory of Dr. Henry Thompson, who receivesthe first of a series of AICR grants in 1986 toexplore his then-radical theory that the frequencyand intensity of exe

  • AICR supports novel research on soy and cancer,with a research grant to Dr. Steven Barnes,helping stimulate increased government (NCI)funding for research in this area.

  • AICR starts funding groundbreaking research onbroccoli by Dr. Paul Talalay. His lab will go on topublish over 200 papers with AICR support, andhis work will inspire an international groundswell ofinterest in the anti-cancer activity of broccoli andother c

  • Dr. Michael Wargovich finds that naturallyoccurring components of onions and garlic canstop the growth of cancer at several different stages.He receives an AICR grant to help him translatethat knowledge from the lab into the clinic.

  • AICR convenes its first Scientific ResearchConference, offering a forum where investigatorsin the still-emerging field of diet-cancer researchcan discuss and debate their exciting results.

  • AICR’s affiliate the World Cancer Research Fundfounded to take the organization’s urgentmission international.

  • Dr. Stephen Zeisel’s work with the nutrient cholinehas paved the way for advances in the field ofnutrigenomics that may soon lead to personalizeddiets for cancer prevention. In 1992, he receivedan AICR grant to explore the role of cholinedeficiency in liv

  • Researchers at the University of California at Davisreceive AICR funding to study the effects of dietshigh in folate versus diets deficient in folate onlung cancer; it is among the first research toaddress itself to the folate-cancer link, an area thathas

  • AICR provides core grant funding for The ChinaStudy, a seminal joint project between Cornell,Oxford and the People’s Republic of China led byT. Colin Campbell, Richard Peto and Junshi Chen.

  • AICR/WCRF publishes its first landmark expertreport: Food, Nutrition and the Prevention ofCancer: a Global Perspective, which gathers andinterprets the available research on diet andcancer. In the wake of the report, AICR updates itsdiet and health guidel

  • AICR translates the research findings of itsexpert report into the New American Plate — asimple, visual tool that has gone on to help millionsof Americans make small, everyday changes forlower cancer risk.

  • AICR/WCRF enters a partnership with theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill toestablish a center for the study of diet, nutritionand cancer. Establishes a distinguishedprofessorship as a first step in the process.

  • AICR/WCRF launches the Marilyn GentryFellowship Program at UNC to encourage excellentyoung researchers to continue their career in thearea of nutrition and cancer

  • To offer the nation’s growing cancer survivorshipcommunity direct access to expert advice and themost up-to-date information on how to lower risk ofrecurrence, AICR holds its first Cancer SurvivorSeminar in New York City. In the years to come,AICR will ta

  • AICR brings the emerging research on thelink between obesity and increased cancerrisk to the attention of the American public for thefirst time, through a coordinated media andeducation campaign.

  • Green Tea, Obesity, Inactivity

    Grants are awarded to investigators studying topics
    on the cutting edge of cancer research such as
    green tea’s ability to keep breast cancer from
    spreading to the bones, the role of obesity and
    inactivity in prostate cancer and the compound
    resveratrol’s role in preventing many different kinds
    of cancer.

  • The AICR/WCRF Institute for the Advanced Study of Diet, Nutrition and Cancer opens at the Universityof North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

  • Dr. Linda DeGraffenreid finds that the kind ofomega-3s found in fatty fish can slow the progressionof prostate cancer while Dr. Elaine Hardmandiscovers that omega-3s in walnuts can slow thegrowth of breast cancer cells. Both of theseadvances are made poss

  • AICR/WCRF ensures that its advice will be basedon the most up-to-date research by establishingthe Continuous Update Project, which will constructand maintain the largest database of its kindanywhere in the world and release periodic reportsthat re-evaluat

  • AICR/WCRF publishes its cancer preventionpolicy report, Policy and Action for CancerPrevention placing the recommendations of the 2007expert report in a broad, societal context. Launchedat an international event in London on February 26and presented to th

  • With an AICR grant, Dr. Randal Wada reveals that aform of vitamin A is able to “switch on” a gene thatcauses neuroblastoma tumor cells to grow intonormal nerve cells. This finding may soon changehow we treat neuroblastoma, leukemia and manyother cancers a

  • AICR/WCRF publishes its second expert report,Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and thePrevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective — themost comprehensive book ever published on thelinks between food, nutrition, physical activity andcancer prevention. In t

  • AICR joins with global partners to bring internationalattention to the growing crisis of non-communicablediseases at a rare, high-level summit of worldhealth officials.