The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the United States 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.
On June 10, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his appointment of Dr. Norman Edward “Ned” Sharpless, M.D., as director of the National Cancer Institute. On October 17 of that year, Dr. Sharpless was sworn in as the NCI's 15th director.NCI is the oldest and has the largest budget and research program of the 27 institutes and centers of the NIH. It fulfills the majority of its mission via an extramural program that provides grants for cancer research. Additionally, the National Cancer Institute has intramural research programs in Bethesda, Maryland and at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research at Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland. The NCI receives more than US$5 billion in funding each year.The NCI supports a nationwide network of 69 NCI-designated Cancer Centers with a dedicated focus on cancer research and treatment and maintains the National Clinical Trials Network.