title: Between prevention and therapy: Gio Batta Gori and the National Cancer Institute's Diet, Nutrition and Cancer Programme, 1974-1978.
abstract: This paper explores the origins of the Diet, Nutrition and Cancer Programme (DNCP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and its fate under its first director, Gio Batta Gori. The DNCP is used to explore the emergence of federal support for research on diet, nutrition and cancer following the 1971 Cancer Act, the complex relations between cancer prevention and therapeutics in the NCI during the 1970s, the broader politics around diet, nutrition and cancer during that decade, and their relations to Senator George McGovern's select committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. It also provides a window onto the debates and struggles over whether NCI research should be funded by contracts or grants, the nature of the patronage system within the federal cancer research agency, how a director, Gio Gori, lost patronage within that system and how a tightening of the budget for cancer research in the mid-to-late 1970s affected the DNCP.
authors.affiliation: Office of History, National Institutes of Health, 1 Cloister Court, Building 60, Room 262, Bethesda, MD 20814-1460, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cantor
mesh_terms: D004032:Diet / Q000266:history; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007878:Legislation as Topic / Q000266:history; D054547:National Cancer Institute (U.S.) / Q000266:history* / Q000458:organization & administration; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000266:history* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D011057:Politics; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States
keywords: Cancer Prevention and Therapy; Diet; Gio Gori; Nutrition and Cancer; Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs (McGovern Committee); US National Cancer Institute; the Candlelighters