History

1998

• OCCAM established within NCI’s Office of the Director
• Dr. Jeffrey D. White named OCCAM’s director
• NCI Best Case Series Program transitioned from the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program to OCCAM

1999

• Established CAM Cancer Research Interest Group
• Co-sponsored and presented at the second Comprehensive Cancer Care Conference
• Established Cancer CAM Invited Speaker Series open to the NIH community

2000

• Launched OCCAM Web site

2001

• Published Letter RFA (Request for Applications) to provide supplemental funding to NCI Cancer Centers for CAM projects
• Established supplement program for Community Clinical Oncology Program
• Held Methodology Working Group on CAM Symptom Management Research in Cancer meeting

2002

• Published first program announcement, Developmental/Pilot Projects in Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) (PA-02-040)

2003

• Funded first international CAM research center grant R21 awarded to The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the Cancer Hospital, Fudan University in Shanghai, China
• Held first grantwriting workshop on cancer and CAM

2004

• Reissued Developmental Projects in Complementary Approaches to Cancer program announcement (PA-04-053)

2005

• Co-produced cancer education booklet Thinking About Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Held second grantwriting workshop on cancer and CAM
• Provided programmatic support for the First International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology

2006

• Held first major conference, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Cancer Research: Fostering Collaboration; Advancing the Science
• Reissued Developmental Projects in Complementary Approaches to Cancer program announcement for a second time (PA-06-400)
• Published first NCI Annual Report on CAM
• Published first issue of newsletter NCI CAM News
• Began hosting monthly lectures given by NCI grantees and scientists conducting research in cancer CAM
• Developed Cancer CAM Research Funding Directory to help researchers identify potential funding sources for cancer CAM research projects
• Hosted third grantwriting workshop at the Third International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology

2007

• Transitioned from the NCI’s Office of the Director to the NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis
• Held conference on developing successful research collaborations on cancer CAM, Cancer Researchers and CAM Practitioners: Fostering Collaboration; Advancing the Science
• Sponsored an international fellow from Beijing, China working on botanical-based cancer therapies at an NCI intramural lab
• Held Mixed Bacterial Vaccines as Cancer Therapy Meeting to discuss the potential directions of a participant of the NCI Best Case Series Program

2008

• Published second NCI Annual Report on CAM
• Co-sponsored the first annual NIH Yoga Week with other federal agencies
• Worked with NCI’s Natural Products Branch to establish a collaboration with the Kunming Institute of Botany to perform screening of natural products for anticancer activity
• Published “Survey of Cancer Researchers Regarding Complementary and Alternative Medicine” in the Journal of the Society of Integrative Oncology.