An official website of the United States government
EGRP Cancer Epidemiology News
September 2026
- Advancing Research on Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancer
- Funding Announcements
- Highlighted Topics
- Prize Competitions
- Grants Policy Notices
- Requests for Information
- Research Resources
- NCI & NIH News
Source: Adobe
Advancing Research on Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancer
The Need for Continued Research
About 15,000 children and adolescents under age 20 are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States. Cancer is the leading cause of death from disease among children and adolescents after infancy. The most common cancers in children and adolescents include leukemias (cancers of the blood and bone marrow), malignant brain and other central nervous system tumors, and lymphomas (cancers that begin in the lymphatic system).
Although the cancer mortality rate among children and adolescents under age 20 dropped by more than half between 1975 and 2024, about 1,800 children and adolescents still die from cancer each year, underscoring the need for continued research and new advances that further reduce childhood cancer mortality.
Despite tremendous progress, significant challenges remain. Some childhood cancers are still treated with chemotherapy regimens developed decades ago, and certain cancers continue to have few effective treatment options. For cancers where treatments are successful, the majority of survivors will suffer adverse outcomes that affect their quality of life months or years after the completion of treatment. Continued research is critical for developing more effective and less toxic treatments and improving survival and long-term outcomes for children diagnosed with cancer.
NCI Support for Childhood and AYA Cancer Research
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) supports a broad childhood cancer research portfolio that spans basic and translational research to advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancers and improve survivorship among children, adolescents, and young adults (AYA) with cancer, including research in precision medicine, immunotherapy, and clinical trials. Additionally, the Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, Research (STAR) Act provides NCI with funding to strengthen research on pediatric/AYA cancer survivorship, including support for treatments, surveillance, and resources for survivors and their families. Initiatives such as the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI) focus on data and data science by bringing together clinical and molecular data to help accelerate discovery and improve care for children and AYAs with cancer. Continued investment can build on progress and create new opportunities to improve outcomes.
The National Childhood Cancer Registry (NCCR) provides a platform to better understand the causes, outcomes, effective treatments, and late effects of cancer among children, adolescents, and young adults in the U.S.
The National Library of Medicine will hold a workshop series on October 14 and 15, 2026, that will feature CCDI and the NCCR as resources for secondary research.
NCI also recently launched the Childhood and AYA Cancer Data Innovation Challenge. Phase I of the challenge includes two tracks offering a total prize of up to $17 million, with as many as 30 winners across both tracks.
- Track 1: Bring new, analysis-ready data and tools into the CCDI Data Ecosystem.
- Track 2: Use CCDI resources, alone or in combination with other resources, to uncover new biological insights.
Submissions for the first milestone are due November 3, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Additional Resources
To learn more about NCI-supported research on childhood and AYA cancers, including funding opportunities and research resources, visit NCI's Research on Childhood Cancers webpage and the NCI Cancer Currents Blog post “Advancing Childhood Cancer Research: A Conversation with Dr. Brigitte Widemann.”
Funding Announcements
- PAR-28-056, Pancreatic Cancer Detection Consortium: Research Units (U01, Clinical Trial Optional)
- PAR-28-057, Pancreatic Cancer Detection Consortium: Management and Data Coordination Unit (U24, Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
- PA-27-034, NIH Research Education Program – Courses, Curriculum & Methods (Parent R25, Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
- PA_27-035, NIH Research Education Program – Mentoring Activities & Networks (Parent R25/UE5, Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
- PA-27-036, NIH Research Education Program – Research Experiences (Parent R25, Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
- FY27 NIH Extramural Loan Repayment Program: Now Accepting Applications (applications due November 19, 2026)
Highlighted Topics
- Advanced Biomaterials for Biomedical Research
- Advancing Evidence-Based Dissemination and Implementation Science to Optimize Low-Resource Clinical and Community Settings*
- Building Health through Multidomain Resilience Research from Molecules to Communities: Mechanisms, Measures, and Biomarkers
- Digital Twins for Biomedical, Biological and Behavioral Research
- Health and Extreme Weather: Advancing Critical Research to Address the Direct and Indirect Health Impacts of Weather-Related Natural Disasters and Emerging Weather-Related Harms*
- Next-generation Cellular Immunotherapy: Reprogramming Immune Cells Inside the Body
- Oral Health and Aging*
- Postnatal Human Developmental Stages and Transitions: Relationships to Aging Changes and Outcomes over the Life Course
*DCCPS staff are NCI contacts for the topic.
Prize Competitions
- NCI Office of Data Sharing Impact Prize (submissions are due October 19, 2026)
- Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Data Innovation Challenge (Milestone 1 submissions are due November 3, 2026)
- It’s About Time: Temporal Reasoning in Biomedical Knowledge Graphs Challenge (submissions for Phase 1 are due by January 15, 2027)
- Advancing the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Clinical Research Challenge (submissions are due by January 15, 2027)
- 2026 NIH Prize for Excellence in Disability Health Research (submissions are due by January 15, 2027)
Grants Policy Notices
- NOT-OD-26-114, Continuation of Modifications to Peer Review Practices
Requests for Information
- Census Bureau Seeks Comments on Proposed Decennial Census Rules (responses due by October 13, 2026)
- NOT-OD-26-088, Proposed Changes to Reporting Outcomes from NIH Peer Review (responses due October 13, 2026)
- NOT-OD-26-112, Draft NIH Biosafety Policy for Research Involving Biohazards (responses due October 19, 2026)
- Draft NIH Policy on Sharing Summary Level Study Results with Clinical Research Participants (responses due October 26, 2026)
Research Resources
NCI & NIH News
- Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer
- Continuing Modified Peer Review Processes for the January 2027 Council Round
- From Scientific Learners to Leaders: Three New Parent Research Education Funding Opportunities, with Perspectives from NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices
- Here’s What We Heard About the Proposed Clinical Trial Specific Application Form, and What’s Next
- NIH Unified Funding Strategy Webinar Recording and Related Resources
- NCI Fiscal Year 2028 Annual Plan & Professional Judgment Budget
- FY25 Inclusion Data for NIH-Supported Clinical Research Now Available by NIH Spending Category
- What We Heard From You Regarding the Proposed Cap on Simultaneous NIH Research Project Grant Support, and Our Next Steps
- Why Does it Take Time After Advisory Council for NIH to Make a Funding Decision?
Stay Connected
Subscribe for Updates
Subscribe
You can subscribe and unsubscribe at any time by entering your email address and selecting your preferences on the page that follows.
Need Help?
EGRP staff can answer questions on grant funding, policies, and research resources. If you do not know who to contact we will do our best to connect you with someone who can help you.
Email Us(240) 276-6730