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The NCI's information dissemination efforts include behavior modification interventions, e.g. smoking and breast screening, as well as education activities specifically directed towards professional and public audiences. The PDQ system is a database containing treatment recommendations and summary information on all active clinical trials supported by NCI. A directory of physicians and organizations that provide cancer care is also included in the PDQ system.
The Cancer Information Service (CIS), known to the public as 1-800-4-CANCER, is staffed by information specialists equipped to respond to public inquiries regarding cancer; often the PDQ system will be consulted. Over one-half of the callers receive a publication or other written material as a result of this service. Heightened public interest in new cancer treatment (i.e. gene vaccine therapy, taxol), results in a flood of calls to this toll free number.
The CIS consists of a nationwide network of 19 regional offices, 18 of which receive direct NCI funding. In addition to providing direct response to the public, the field offices support NCI's major outreach activities and conduct cancer education programs to meet specific local and regional needs.
In addition to individual mailings of pamphlets/brochures by the local network offices, the NCI widely distributes bulk volumes of pamphlets/brochures to hospitals, supermarkets, physician organizations, etc., for subsequent distribution to the public.
Pamphlets/Brochures Distributed:
CIS Inquiries 550,000
Publication Ordering Calls 127,641
Total Literature Distributed 18,000,000
PDQ Searches 30,000
Scientific Information Dissemination The ICIC continues to promote the use of PDQ to the widest audiences possible. The ICIC maintains three services that make cancer information from NCI available quickly and easily through fax (CancerFax ), electronic mail (CancerNet ), or via the Internet. These services make all PDQ treatment, supportive care, and cancer screening and drug summaries from PDQ available to users throughout the world. To facilitate communication with Spanish speaking health professionals and patients, much of the information in CancerFax and CancerNet is available in Spanish as well as English. The ICIC, in cooperation with the University of Chile and the Chilean Embassy, installed the Spanish language version of CancerFax in Santiago, Chile for regional dissemination of NCI's cancer information. The ICIC continues to increase the number of distributors and methods of access to PDQ and CANCERLIT. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the NCI's peer-reviewed scientific periodical publication, provides information regarding clinical and basic research advances to cancer professionals worldwide. ICIC staff present NCI's scientific information services, including database demonstrations and seminars, at national and international medical meetings to enhance the awareness of these services.
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