Andrew C. von Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute, renewed his pledge to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer by 2015 during a two-day visit to UC Davis Cancer Center in October.

The nation's top cancer doctor delivered back-to-back keynotes, speaking first at the Cancer Center's annual research symposium on Oct. 21 and the following morning at the Cancer Center-hosted AANCART Academy. AANCART — for Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training — is an NCI-funded project that unites investigators from nine cancer centers in five states in a common effort to reduce cancer in Asian Americans. UC Davis is national headquarters for AANCART.

Von Eschenbach first issued his 2015 challenge in the spring of 2003. "We are not saying that we will 'cure' or eliminate all cancer," he said. "Rather, we aim to pre-empt the worst outcomes of the disease: We will prevent more cancer; we will detect many more cancers earlier and eliminate them with fewer side effects; and we will modulate the aggressiveness of cancer so that people live with, but do not die from, the disease."

Von Eschenbach is the 12th director of the NCI since its creation in 1937.