National Cancer Institute

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). An agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the NIH is the medical research agency of the federal government. The NCI conducts and supports research, training, health-information dissemination and other programs that are related to the cause, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancer; rehabilitation from cancer; and the continuing care of cancer patients and the families of cancer patients. The NCI website offers extensive fact sheets on all types of cancer, a dictionary of cancer terms, a dictionary of drug names, information on coping with cancer, and research news. It provides information on cancer prevention, screening, clinical trials, research funding, statistics, and complementary and alternative medicine. The institute’s toll-free help-line provides smoking-cessation information and answers to questions about cancer.