SPECS Projects

Two funding opportunities for SPECS were made available, and the following projects were selected for the SPECS I and SPECS II phases of the program.

SPECS I Projects

The SPECS I program was initiated in 2004 and supported six research teams studying six different types of cancers. The projects are listed below.

• Molecular Signatures of Lung Cancer
• Molecular Signatures to Improve Diagnosis and Outcome Prediction in Lymphoma
• Biological Breast Cancer Classification by qRT-PCR
• Evaluation of Predictive Signatures of Prostate Cancer
• Diagnostic and Prognostic Sarcoma Signatures
• Leukemia Signatures for Risk of Classification & Targeting

The signatures evaluated in SPECS I were originally discovered by investigators supported by the NCI Director’s Challenge Initiative. Read more here.

SPECS II Projects

The SPECS II program was initiated in 2010 and supported research teams studying five different types of cancers: Lung cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, acute leukemia, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In this program, the clinical need determined which molecular profile would be evaluated. The molecular profiles included diagnostic profiles to characterize specific cancers, prognostic profiles to indicate the likelihood of patient survival (regardless of treatment), and predictive profiles to indicate an individual patient’s response to a specific therapy.

Through a competitive U01 cooperative agreement, the following projects were funded for the SPECS II Program:

• Molecular Signatures for Outcome Prediction and Therapeutic Targeting in ALL
• Molecular Diagnosis and Prognosis in Aggressive Lymphoma
• Validation of Prognostic and Pathway Signatures in Lethal Prostate Cancer
• Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Lung: Validation of Molecular Signatures for Prognosis
• Individualizing Colon Cancer Therapy Using Hybrid RNA and DNA Molecular Signatures

Related Projects:

Evolving from a SPECS I Project, TARGET: Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments applies a comprehensive genomic approach to determine molecular changes that drive childhood cancers.