Rutgers Team Receives $6.5M Lung Cancer Grant

A five-year National Cancer Institute award will fund tools for tobacco policy, lung cancer screening and survivorship care.

Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Cancer

Isometric editorial illustration of a slate and cream lung-shaped form on a flat plinth beside stacked policy blocks, set against a pale coastal horizon. — A five-year, $6.5 million National Cancer Institute grant will fund a Rutgers-led consortium developing tobacco control and lung cancer screening tools. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

A Rutgers-led consortium has received a $6.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop tools for guiding tobacco control, improving lung cancer screening, strengthening survivorship care and supporting state-level cancer prevention planning. The five-year award runs through the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network.

Why it matters

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, and fewer than 20% of eligible people are screened. New nicotine products are reaching the market while tobacco control programs face cuts, making better evaluation tools a practical need for policymakers.

The $6.5 million award funds a five-year research effort built on a suite of six lung cancer natural history models and comparative modeling methods used for more than 25 years by the CISNET Lung Working Group. Results from the new tools have not yet been reported.

The players

Jamie Tam

Jamie Tam is an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health who leads the multidisciplinary research team on this grant.

Rafael Meza

Rafael Meza is a researcher who co-leads the team as one of six Principal Investigators on the project.

Rutgers School of Public Health

The Rutgers School of Public Health is the academic unit leading the consortium and conducting the cancer prevention and screening research.

National Cancer Institute

The National Cancer Institute is the federal agency that awarded the $6.5 million grant through the CISNET program.

The details

Jamie Tam, an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health, will lead a multidisciplinary team spanning seven universities, with Rafael Meza co-leading as one of six Principal Investigators. Partner institutions include Stanford University, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Purdue University, the University of Michigan and Harvard University.

The grant is a five-year award beginning with its 2026 announcement.
The grant was announced on November 3, 2026.

Big Picture

The CISNET Lung Working Group has used comparative modeling for more than 25 years to compare lung cancer control strategies. This award extends that body of work toward emerging nicotine products and state-level prevention planning.

For New Jersey residents, the research aims to sharpen state-level cancer prevention planning and lung screening strategies. Readers who smoke or are eligible for lung screening may see these tools inform future programs over the grant's five-year span.

The takeaway

Lung cancer screening reaches fewer than one in five eligible people, so better planning tools could help programs close that gap. Residents who are eligible can ask their clinicians whether screening is appropriate for them.