text: The NCI, headed by Dr. John R. Heller Jr., lobbied the United States Congress for financial support for second-generation chemotherapy research.  In response, Congress created a Cancer Chemotherapy National Service Center (CCNSC) at the NCI in 1955. This was the first federal programme to promote drug discovery for cancer – unlike now, most pharmaceutical companies were not yet interested in developing anticancer drugs. The CCNSC developed the methodologies and crucial tools (like cell lines and animal models) for chemotherapeutic development.