The Cancer Chemotherapy National Service Center: Development of an Innovation System

Abstract

This article frames the historical record concerning the activities of the Cancer Chemotherapy National Service Center as an illustration of the US government’s role in the development of structural and functional features of an embryonic technological innovation system. While the Center’s contribution to the development of pioneering cancer drugs has long been recognized, the article highlights how the Center promoted the cooperative participation of a growing number of individuals and organizations in the search for effective chemotherapeutic cancer treatments. Such participation accelerated the development and diffusion of knowledge related to the anticancer properties of large numbers of substances and compounds, as well as to protocols and methods for pre-clinical and clinical testing whose use later became common features of the cancer chemotherapy innovation system.