Overview of Native American Initiatives

NCI supports several projects among Native American populations, largely in collaboration with its Network for Cancer Control Research Among American Indian/Alaska Natives Populations. This collaborative group of Native and non-Native researchers and educators provides a forum to exchange information on cancer control research and to improve community links to NCI's researchers, the NCI's Cancer Information Service, and the American Cancer Society.

The Native American Network strives to:

• increase the number of Native American researchers, scientists, and medical students involved in cancer control activities in Native American communities;
• develop curricula and mentor students in the Native Researchers' Cancer Control Training Program; and
• convene national conferences on "Cancer in Indian Country."

A supplemental monograph has been published to provide a comprehensive description of the cancer burden in the American Indian/ Alaska Native population in the United States using a combination of cancer incidence data from CDC's National Program of Cancer Registries and NCI's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, along with record linkages and geographic factors. For more information visit An Update on Cancer in American Indians and Alaska Natives, 1999-2004 on the SEER website.