National Cancer Institute

National Cancer Institute
National Cancer Institute
NCI
	National Cancer Institute logo
Agency overview
Formed	August 6, 1937
Agency executive	Harold Varmis, Director
Website
	Cancer.gov

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S. National Cancer Program and conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other activities related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; the supportive care of cancer patients and their families; and cancer survivorship. As of July 2010, the current director of the NCI is Dr. Harold Varmus.

The National Cancer Institute has large intramural research programs in Bethesda, Maryland and NCI-Frederick at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. In addition, the NCI funds cancer researchers around the United States.

History

The United States Congress established the NCI by the National Cancer Institute Act, August 6, 1937, as an independent research institute. Congress then made the NCI an operating division of the National Institutes of Health by the Public Health Service Act, July 1, 1944. Congress amended the Public Health Service Act with the National Cancer Act of 1971 to broaden the scope and responsibilities of the NCI "in order more effectively to carry out the national effort against cancer." Over the years, legislative amendments have maintained the NCI authorities and responsibilities and added new information dissemination mandates as well as a requirement to assess the incorporation of state-of-the-art cancer treatments into clinical practice.