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To increase the number of persons trained in cancer communications, this program provides a variety of training experiences for graduate-level students in health communications. Fellows are located in various parts of the Office of Cancer Communications and the International Cancer Information Center, where they work with staff members on health education projects or science writing.
Cancer Information Service
The Office of Cancer Communications supports a nationwide network of offices known as the Cancer Information Service (CIS). The CIS serves as the NCI's primary mechanism to disseminate accurate up-to-date information to the American public at the community level. As OCC field offices, the CIS provides information on cancer and local resources through its toll free phone service. Over 500,000 calls are received each year. In addition, the CIS serves as a catalyst for the adoption and adaptation of NCI education programs. Under a new program structure implemented in 1993, the regional CIS offices now serve the entire continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The CIS offices are funded through a contract mechanism with NCI designated cancer centers and community hospitals.
International Cancer Information Center
To increase the dissemination of cancer research and treatment information to physicians, researchers and other health professionals involved in health care, the International Cancer Information Center (ICIC) publishes the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and produces the PDQ and CANCERLIT databases. The ICIC continues to enhance the CancerFax and CancerNet information services. Cancer Fact Sheets from the Office of Cancer Communications are now available from both services, and highly focused, CANCERLIT-derived search results will be available in early 1994. 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 ICIC information. The CancerNet service was made widely available on the Internet using the DCRT Gopher server and is being used extensively by U.S. and foreign countries.
PDQ has been enhanced with screening/prevention and drug information. Summaries of evidence for screening have been written for cancer sites. Drug information has been compiled for 11 investigational drugs, and additional statements are under development. All of this information is available in CancerFax and CancerNet, as well as in PDQ.
The ICIC has begun working with regional distributors of information throughout the world that provide free access to local or specialized audiences that do not have access to the Internet or large scale information providers. These local distributors obtain PDQ and CANCERLIT information via the Internet, then redistribute it to their audience via bulletin boards, local Gopher servers, etc.
The ICIC is also utilizing the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program to explore the feasibility of using new technologies to disseminate NCI's computerized databases, PDQ and CANCERLIT. Recent contract awards are aimed at developing: 1) a portable medical record containing patient data and patient specific information from PDQ and CANCERLIT; 2) voice activated access to a clinician oriented knowledge server that will provide assistance forming queries to access external databases (the standard for this knowledge server will be placed in the public domain); and 3) hand-held, wireless PC access to the PDQ and CANCERLIT databases. The ICIC has also published requests for proposals for the development of: 1) use of 3-D visualization software as an interface to the PDQ and CANCERLIT databases; 2) a multi-media version of PDQ; and 3) a domain model and reference architecture for an integrated, multi-media clinical information system for oncology (to be placed in the public domain).
Office Of International Affairs (OIA)
OIA coordinates collaborative research between American and Foreign scientists. It cosponsors international workshops and scientist exchanges. Twenty-three workshops and 281 scientist exchanges were sponsored during FY 1993. Many more required no OIA funding. Seven European Organizations for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and seven Japanese Foundations for Cancer Research (JFCR) exchangees came to American laboratories. In addition, 686 foreign scientists were at NCI under the NIH Visiting Program.
The Oncology Research Faculty Development Program for scientists from the developing world supported sixteen trainees during FY 1993.
A new program of Career Development Awards for Young Cancer Researchers in the Newly Independent States of the Former USSR was begun in 1993.
OIA funds contracts for cancer information dissemination in Latin America through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), for technology transfer through the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and for the support of the U.S. National Committee of the UICC through the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
With the Fogarty International Center (FIC), OIA participates in the administration of projects on bone marrow transplantation in Zagreb, Croatia, on the carcinoge- nicity of Indian Tobacco products and on the molecular epidemiology of childhood leukemia in Bangalore, Bombay, and New Delhi. It administers U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded projects at the Ain-Shams Medical Genetics Center and at the National Cancer Institute in Cairo, Egypt.
OIA funds the screening of Red Sea natural products for anti-cancer drug activity and cancer epidemiology studies of migrants into Israel. Other OIA supported projects include a US-German effort to develop an HPV mucosotropic vaccine and US-CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) efforts in charged particle therapy and anti-sense nucleotide synthesis.
In cooperation with the International Cancer Information Center (ICIC), OIA's three CD-ROM based information dissemination demonstration projects in cancer centers in Eastern Europe in 1990 expanded to fifty in the developing world in FY 1993.
PDQ has been translated into Spanish, is available in this language through CancerFax, and is accessible through electronic mail using the Internet (CancerNet) or BITNIS systems.
Distribution of an "Outstanding Cancer Seminars" series on videotape was continued during FY 1993.
OIA maintains a liaison between the NCI and international agencies involved in cancer research and prevention, such as the EORTC, IARC, UICC, OECI, PAHO, WHO, and with national organizations which have international components, such as the American Cancer Society (ACS) and NAS in the U.S.; the United Kingdom Coordinating Committee for Cancer Research (UKCCCR), the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC), and Imperial Cancer Research Fund in the United Kingdom, the Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) in France; the JFCR, or the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); and many more. The NCI's four research divisions supported 75 foreign grants and contracts (54 and 21, respectively). In addition, 26 domestic grants and 18 contracts had a foreign component.
OIA funded, in cooperation with FIC, the first year of seven Fogarty International Research Collaboration Awards (FIRCA) to NCI-supported scientists for work to be performed in Central and East European institutions.
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