FIGURE 3-2 National Cancer Institute awards targeting special populations

(total funding in millions of dollars). SOURCE: National Cancer Institute.

The summaries of programs of research at NCI relevant to minority and underserved populations presented above include information regarding specific funding amounts, where available. Attempts to estimate the overall percentage of the NCI budget that has been allocated to the study of minority and medically underserved populations is difficult, in part because many basic and applied research programs that are geared to improving cancer prevention, treatment, and control among general populations may reap benefits for minority and medically underserved groups.

Another difficulty in accounting for funding allocated to the study of specific populations is posed by the accounting methods that NCI uses to estimate resource allocation. NCI, along with other agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is required to produce annual reports on the allocation of research funds for Minority Health and Assistance Programs (MHAPs). These include programs that are fully targeted to minority populations (100 percent relevant), in addition to those that are not specifically targeted to these populations but that have some bearing to minority populations by virtue of having minority groups among study samples, clinical trial groups, or the like. For the latter programs, NCI calculates the "percent relevancy" of the program on the basis of the