What is a COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER?
What is the NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE?
What is the NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH?

Hardly a day goes by without mention of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the media. The NIH was created with our tax dollars in 1930, one of eight health agencies that is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH today is comprised of 24 separate Institutes and Centers. It is located just outside Washington, D.C., in Bethesda, Maryland.

CONTACT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

Throughout the 1930s, grassroots organizations kept attention focused on the need for federal support of cancer research. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Cancer Institute Act into law on August 5, 1937. The Act established the National Cancer Institute.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), is the largest of the 17 biomedical research institutes and centers at the NIH. NCI coordinates the government's cancer research program.

CONTACT THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

Designated by NCI to engage in multidisciplinary research to reduce cancer rates, disease, and death, several cancer centers existed in the late 1960s. In 1971, the National Cancer Act was passed, and the center's structure and scope were transformed to include all aspects of basic, clinical, and cancer control research. The University of Chicago was the first in Illinois to be named an NCI-designated cancer center in 1973.

The NCI Cancer Centers Program supports three types of centers:

Comprehensive Cancer Centers perform research in three major areas: basic research; clinical research; and cancer prevention, control, and population-based research. Each must also have a strong body of interactive research that bridges these research areas. In addition, a Comprehensive Cancer Center must conduct activities in outreach, education and information provision, which are directed toward and accessible to both health care professionals and the lay community. All NCI-designated cancer centers must pass rigorous peer review, and are reevaluated every 3 to 5 years.

Clinical Cancer Centers conduct programs in clinical research, and may also have programs in other research areas.

Cancer Centers focus on basic research or cancer control research, but do not have clinical oncology programs.

Today, more than 30 U.S. cancer centers meet the NCI criteria for comprehensive status. The University of Chicago Cancer Research Center is a comprehensive cancer center.

CONTACT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CANCER RESEARCH CENTER

Because of this Cancer Centers Program designation, patients have access to treatment protocols unavailable elsewhere in the region. Through interdisciplinary efforts, cancer centers can effectively move new and innovative approaches to cancer research from the laboratory into clinical trials and into clinical practice.

Contact our office for a complete listing of NCI-designated cancer centers. Each individual center will provide information about services available to patients, referral procedures and treatment costs.

Additional information about the Cancer Centers program can be found on the Internet at http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancercenters.

To contact the University of Chicago scientists funded by the Cancer Research Foundation, access the electronic directory at http://nsit.uchicago.edu/phonebook.

GREETING CARDS

The Cancer Research Foundation offers holiday and other occasion greeting cards. Our cards are available through Heartfelt, a Northfield-based company that markets, sells, imprints and distributes greeting cards that benefit non-profit organizations.

To view and order our cards, CONTACT HEARTFELT.

BREAST CANCER NETWORK

Barbara Whipple, a Chicago-area breast cancer survivor, has formed a network of survivors. If you'd like to get in touch with Barbara, e-mail her at curenow@aol.com.

IRS FORM 990, RETURN OF ORGANIZATIONS EXEMPT FROM INCOME TAX

Every year the Cancer Research Foundation files a report with the Internal Revenue Service, IRS Form 990. This report is available for public inspection in our office. We also make it available by mail, at a nominal cost.

Our IRS form 990 is posted on the Internet. To access it immediately, CONTACT GUIDESTAR PHILANTHROPIC RESEARCH.