Physical Activity and Weight Control Interventions Among Cancer Survivors: Effects on Biomarkers of Prognosis and Survival (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | PAR 18 006

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 18 006

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is soliciting R01 grant applications under PAR-18-006 to support research on how physical activity and weight control strategies influence cancer outcomes in people who have already been diagnosed and treated for cancer. The central purpose of the funding opportunity is not simply to show that exercise or weight management is beneficial, but to pin down the specific biological and biobehavioral mechanisms that might explain improvements in prognosis and survival. In other words, NIH is looking for studies that can connect a behavioral intervention (such as an exercise program, a weight loss intervention, or prevention of post-treatment weight gain) to measurable changes in biomarkers that are meaningfully tied to cancer progression, recurrence risk, or mortality.

A major emphasis of this FOA is on translational and transdisciplinary work that integrates behavioral science with cancer biology and other relevant clinical and basic science fields. Applications are expected to build on prior evidence from animal models and observational studies to select well-justified biomarkers of prognosis. Importantly, the announcement highlights interest in established biomarkers beyond the insulin/glucose metabolism pathway, which has been heavily studied in this space already. The FOA especially encourages biomarkers derived from tumor tissue, including tumor-based measures obtained through repeat biopsies when feasible and appropriate. That focus reflects an interest in getting closer to the tumor microenvironment and tumor biology itself, rather than relying only on circulating systemic markers.

The opportunity also reflects the reality that many cancer survivors ultimately do not die from recurrent cancer, but instead from comorbid conditions or complications associated with treatment, reduced physical functioning, or accelerated aging processes. Because of that, NIH explicitly welcomes inclusion of biomarkers related to comorbid diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, as well as biomarkers that reflect aging-related pathways. Applicants are encouraged to think broadly about survivorship as a long-term health trajectory and to capture intermediate biological signals that may explain downstream outcomes like overall survival, disease-free survival, recurrence, late effects, and non-cancer mortality.

From a study design standpoint, the FOA encourages rigorous experimental approaches that can credibly test causal effects of the interventions on biomarkers. Randomized controlled trials are clearly aligned with the intent of the announcement, but it also mentions other experimental frameworks such as fractional factorial designs that can help disentangle which components of multi-part interventions are driving biological changes. The “Clinical Trial Optional” label indicates that applicants may propose clinical trials if appropriate, but are not strictly required to do so; however, the overall language strongly favors experimental designs capable of testing intervention effects rather than purely observational work.

In practical terms, competitive applications would typically specify a defined cancer survivor population, describe a physical activity intervention and/or weight control strategy (either weight loss or weight gain prevention), justify the timing and duration of the intervention, and lay out a clear biomarker-focused endpoint strategy. Strong proposals would also make a convincing case that the chosen biomarkers are mechanistically linked to prognosis and survival in the target cancer type, and that the intervention is plausibly capable of changing those biomarkers. The announcement’s repeated stress on integration implies that reviewers will look for teams that include expertise in behavioral intervention delivery and adherence, oncology and survivorship care, biomarker measurement and interpretation, and the relevant mechanistic biology underpinning the proposed pathways.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of domestic applicants such as state, county, and local governments; public and private institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) as well as small businesses; and tribal governments and tribal organizations. The FOA also calls out additional eligible applicants that NIH especially welcomes, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions, tribally controlled colleges and universities, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian serving institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander serving institutions, faith-based or community-based organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations) and regional organizations. This breadth signals interest in diverse research settings and populations, which is often important in survivorship research given disparities in access to supportive care and lifestyle intervention resources.

Administratively, this is a discretionary NIH grant program in the Education and Health activity categories, associated with CFDA numbers 93.393 and 93.399. The FOA was created on November 3, 2017, and the original closing date listed in the provided record is September 7, 2018. The source snippet does not specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards, which typically means those details may vary by NIH institute participation, available appropriations, and application volume.

Overall, the opportunity is best understood as NIH’s push for mechanism-focused survivorship intervention science: trials or other experimental studies that move beyond “does exercise help” toward “how, through which pathways, and in which survivors does it change tumor-related and systemic biology in ways that plausibly improve long-term outcomes,” while also recognizing that survivorship endpoints often include comorbidity and aging-related risks in addition to cancer recurrence itself.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Physical Activity and Weight Control Interventions Among Cancer Survivors: Effects on Biomarkers of Prognosis and Survival (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.393, 93.399.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-11-03.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-09-07. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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