Learn About Cancer Care in Your Community

By the National Cancer Institute

Editor's Note: The following article is part of the monthly Lifelines education and awareness print series that the National Cancer Institute provides to African American news and information outlets

News provided by

National Cancer Institute

Dec 30, 2014, 05:00 ET

BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NCI-designated Cancer Centers Program

You may have heard about National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers. Perhaps there is even one in your city. NCI-designated Cancer Centers are often located at well-known, academic institutions, such as the Mayo Clinic, and are an important source of care for cancer patients.

These cancer centers are part of the NCI Cancer Centers Program, a network of 68 cancer centers that deliver some of the latest medical advances to patients and families. NCI-designated cancer centers are institutions dedicated to research in the development of more effective approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. They conduct a wide variety of research, from laboratory to clinical research with patients, and also in population-based research. They also conduct training for scientists, doctors, and health professionals, and provide education and outreach about cancer prevention and screening with special attention to the needs of underserved populations. This NCI-designated Cancer Centers Program is critical for continuing to make progress in cancer research and for ensuring that the benefits of that research are available to all of us, regardless of socio-economic status or race and ethnic background. For more information about the NCI Cancer Centers Program, please visit http://cancercenters.cancer.gov.

NCI Community Oncology Research Program

Because the vast majority of people receive their cancer care in the communities where they live, NCI also maintains a strong community oncology program. The NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) is a national network of investigators, cancer care providers, academic institutions, and other organizations. The overall goal of NCORP is to bring cancer research, to individuals in their own communities, to contribute to better patient outcomes and a reduction in cancer disparities. NCORP consists of Research Bases and Community Sites. The Research Bases design and conduct NCORP's multi-center cancer studies. The NCORP Community Sites accrue participants to NCORP cancer prevention, control, screening and post-treatment surveillance clinical trials and cancer care delivery research as well as to NCI's treatment, imaging and quality of life trials. Twelve of the 46 community NCORP sites are designated as Minority/Underserved sites, where at least 30 percent of cancer patients from racial/ethnic minority or other underserved rural populations. To learn more about the NCI's community program, NCORP, please visit http://ncorp.cancer.gov.

NCI is proud of its decades-long history of reaching out to underserved populations as part of its mission and is committed to addressing the important disparity questions related to cancer. Members of racial and ethnic minority groups, rural populations, and people of low socioeconomic status can benefit from the research and care being delivered through these programs. It's important to become familiar with NCI cancer programs located throughout the United States. They are a premier source of cancer care if you or a loved one is ever confronted with cancer and needs treatment. Although there is much more that needs to be done, NCI research is saving lives and is allowing more and more people to live longer, better lives.

To learn more about the NCI Cancer Centers Program, you may visit: http://cancercenters.cancer.gov (http://www.cancer.gov/espanol/instituto). Here is a map to help locate the Cancer Center closest to you: http://cancercenters.cancer.gov/cancer_centers/map-cancer-centers.html

To learn more about the NCI's community program, NCORP, please visit http://ncorp.cancer.gov.

As always, you can call the Cancer Information Service to answer any questions you may have about cancer, at 1-800-4-CANCER. For Spanish speaking callers, Spanish speaking information specialists are available. Also, you can go online to http://www.cancer.gov (www.cancer.gov/espanol). You may also visit http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/ for information about cancer clinical trials.

NCI leads the National Cancer Program and the NIH effort to dramatically reduce the burden of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families, through research into prevention and cancer biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI web site at www.cancer.gov or call NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237). More articles and videos in the culturally relevant Lifelines series are available at www.cancer.gov/lifelines.

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SOURCE National Cancer Institute