SEATTLE - The National Cancer Institute has awarded a $55.4 million, multiyear contract to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The Seattle-based center is being hired to operate the nation's Cancer Information Service Contact Center.
The Cancer Information Service offers free information about cancer prevention, screening and treatment via the telephone and the Internet.
The grant will enable the Hutchinson Center to create 60 new jobs once the centralized Cancer Information Service opens in spring 2010.
In the past, there were 26 Cancer Information Centers spread across the United States.
That number has dwindled to three in recent years.
Besides an existing center in Seattle, there are information centers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York and at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The other two centers are due to close in March 2010.
