§285a–2 — Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare | U.S. Code

§285a–2 Special authorities of Director

Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 6A— - PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER III— - NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTES › Part Part C— - Specific Provisions Respecting National Research Institutes › Subpart subpart 1— - national cancer institute › § 285a–2

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Create a public education program that gathers, studies, and quickly shares information about cancer research, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and nutrition with patients, families, doctors, health workers, and the public. The Director must keep communication links with other scientific and medical groups here and abroad. The program must help people lower their cancer risk, learn about early detection, find and use treatments, cope with cancer, and improve long-term survival. It must give doctors up-to-date treatment information, point out clinical trials that might help patients, check how well modern treatments are being used and how many patients get them, and include those findings in the Institute’s two-year reports required under section 284b. The Director must run an International Cancer Research Data Bank to collect and share research and treatment results from around the world and use public information systems when practical. Under the National Cancer Program, the Director must support large-scale production or distribution of special biological materials and other therapeutic items for research and set safety standards for users. With advice from the Institute’s advisory council, the Director may support foreign research that can benefit Americans, joint U.S.-foreign research, and training of U.S. scientists abroad and foreign scientists in the United States. The Director must back education and training programs, encourage industry research, and may hire up to 151 expert consultants after consulting the advisory council (following section 3109 of title 5 but ignoring that section’s service-time limit). The Director may build, buy, lease, renovate, or operate labs and other research facilities, make construction grants, and acquire buildings in Washington, D.C., or nearby communities for up to ten years. The Director may form advisory committees, enter needed contracts and agreements, and must send the President an annual budget request for the National Cancer Program (including personnel needs) after letting the Secretary, the NIH Director, and the advisory council comment. The Director must also expand and coordinate work to develop preclinical models to test treatments for childhood cancer and work with other NIH institutes and agencies that have related responsibilities.

Title 42, §285a–2

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)The Director of the Institute shall establish an information and education program to collect, identify, analyze, and disseminate on a timely basis, through publications and other appropriate means, to cancer patients and their families, physicians and other health professionals, and the general public, information on cancer research, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment (including information respecting nutrition programs for cancer patients and the relationship between nutrition and cancer). The Director of the Institute may take such action as may be necessary to insure that all channels for the dissemination and exchange of scientific knowledge and information are maintained between the Institute and the public and between the Institute and other scientific, medical, and biomedical disciplines and organizations nationally and internationally.

(2)In carrying out paragraph (1), the Director of the Institute shall—

(A)provide public and patient information and education programs, providing information that will help individuals take personal steps to reduce their risk of cancer, to make them aware of early detection techniques and to motivate appropriate utilization of those techniques, to help individuals deal with cancer if it strikes, and to provide information to improve long-term survival;

(B)continue and expand programs to provide physicians and the public with state-of-the-art information on the treatment of particular forms of cancers, and to identify those clinical trials that might benefit patients while advancing knowledge of cancer treatment;

(C)assess the incorporation of state-of-the-art cancer treatments into clinical practice and the extent to which cancer patients receive such treatments and include the results of such assessments in the biennial reports required under section 284b 11 See References in Text note below. of this title;

(D)maintain and operate the International Cancer Research Data Bank, which shall collect, catalog, store, and disseminate insofar as feasible the results of cancer research and treatment undertaken in any country for the use of any person involved in cancer research and treatment in any country; and

(E)to the extent practicable, in disseminating the results of such cancer research and treatment, utilize information systems available to the public.

(b)The Director of the Institute in carrying out the National Cancer Program—

(1)shall establish or support the large-scale production or distribution of specialized biological materials and other therapeutic substances for cancer research and set standards of safety and care for persons using such materials;

(2)shall, in consultation with the advisory council for the Institute, support (A) research in the cancer field outside the United States by highly qualified foreign nationals which can be expected to benefit the American people, (B) collaborative research involving American and foreign participants, and (C) the training of American scientists abroad and foreign scientists in the United States;

(3)shall, in consultation with the advisory council for the Institute, support appropriate programs of education and training (including continuing education and laboratory and clinical research training);

(4)shall encourage and coordinate cancer research by industrial concerns where such concerns evidence a particular capability for such research;

(5)may obtain (after consultation with the advisory council for the Institute and in accordance with section 3109 of title 5, but without regard to the limitation in such section on the period of service) the services of not more than one hundred and fifty-one experts or consultants who have scientific or professional qualifications;

(6)(A)may, in consultation with the advisory council for the Institute, acquire, construct, improve, repair, operate, and maintain laboratories, other research facilities, equipment, and such other real or personal property as the Director determines necessary;

(B)may, in consultation with the advisory council for the Institute, make grants for construction or renovation of facilities; and

(C)may, in consultation with the advisory council for the Institute, acquire, without regard to section 8141 of title 40, by lease or otherwise through the Administrator of General Services, buildings or parts of buildings in the District of Columbia or communities located adjacent to the District of Columbia for the use of the Institute for a period not to exceed ten years;

(7)may, in consultation with the advisory council for the Institute, appoint one or more advisory committees composed of such private citizens and officials of Federal, State, and local governments to advise the Director with respect to the Director’s functions;

(8)may, subject to section 284(b)(2) of this title and without regard to section 3324 of title 31 and section 6101 of title 41, enter into such contracts, leases, cooperative agreements, as may be necessary in the conduct of functions of the Director, with any public agency, or with any person, firm, association, corporation, or educational institution; and

(9)shall, notwithstanding section 284(a) of this title, prepare and submit, directly to the President for review and transmittal to Congress, an annual budget estimate (including an estimate of the number and type of personnel needs for the Institute) for the National Cancer Program, after reasonable opportunity for comment (but without change) by the Secretary, the Director of NIH, and the Institute’s advisory council.

(c)(1)The Director of the National Cancer Institute shall expand, intensify, and coordinate the activities of the Institute with respect to research on the development of preclinical models to evaluate which therapies are likely to be effective for treating pediatric cancer.

(2)The Director of the Institute shall coordinate the activities under paragraph (1) with similar activities conducted by other national research institutes and agencies of the National Institutes of Health to the extent that those Institutes and agencies have responsibilities that are related to pediatric cancer.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 284b of this title, referred to in subsec. (a)(2)(C), was repealed by Pub. L. 109–482, title I, § 104(b)(1)(C), Jan. 15, 2007, 120 Stat. 3693. Codification In subsec. (b)(6)(C), “section 8141 of title 40” substituted for “the Act of March 3, 1877 (40 U.S.C. 34)” on authority of Pub. L. 107–217, § 5(c), Aug. 21, 2002, 116 Stat. 1303, the first section of which enacted Title 40, Public Buildings, Property, and Works. In subsec. (b)(8), “section 6101 of title 41” substituted for “section 3709 of the Revised Statutes (41 U.S.C. 5)” on authority of Pub. L. 111–350, § 6(c), Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3854, which Act enacted Title 41, Public Contracts.

Amendments

2002—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 107–109 added subsec. (c). 1993—Subsec. (b)(9). Pub. L. 103–43 struck out subpar. (A) designation and subpar. (B) which permitted Director to receive from President and Office of Management and Budget directly all funds appropriated by Congress for obligation and expenditure by Institute. 1989—Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 101–93 substituted “Institute and” for “Institute and and”. 1988—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 100–607, § 122(1), designated existing provisions as par. (1), substituted “education program” for “education center”, inserted “and the public and between the Institute and” after “between the Institute”, and added par. (2). Subsec. (b)(5). Pub. L. 100–607, § 122(2)(A), substituted “after consultation with” for “with the approval of”. Subsec. (b)(8) to (10). Pub. L. 100–607, § 122(2)(B), inserted “and” after “or educational institution;” in par. (8), redesignated par. (10) as (9), and struck out former par. (9) which related to International Cancer Research Data Bank.