News Note: NCI Awards Cancer Information Service Contact Center

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, announced yesterday the selection of a single organization for a multiple year contract award to operate its Cancer Information Service (CIS) Contact Center. The program will be located at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Wash., and will serve the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S.-associated Pacific Territories.

The Contact Center provides information to the public through a toll-free telephone number, 1-800-4CANCER , and by e-mail in English and Spanish and through LiveHelp instant messaging on NCI's web site, www.cancer.gov. The NCI's CIS is the federal government's source for the latest, most accurate cancer information for the public, patients and their families, and health professionals and for over 30 years has been providing up-to-date scientifically based information in easy to understand language. The contract also provides for smoking cessation counseling via NCI's Smoking Quitline (1-877-44U-QUIT). The Contact Center handles over 100,000 inquiries annually and has responded to over 10 million callers since its inception in 1976.