On May 24, 2017, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded $24 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to continue operating the NCI’s primary public access point for cancer information in both English and Spanish.

The NCI originally established contact centers at several NCI-designated cancer centers throughout the country; the first call was taken in 1976.  The Contact Center at Fred Hutch joined this effort in 1981, and eventually became the sole operator in 2009, when NCI consolidated existing operations into a single Contact Center.

The center fields requests from patients and their families over the phone and via an online chat, as well as through email and social media. Last year, 48 percent of the 92,000 requests the center received were over the phone, with the remainder coming through the internet. The center employs about 65 staff members.