Cancer is the second leading cause of death among African Americans, taking more lives than in any other racial group. It is second only to heart disease as a cause of death. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 1997, approximately 22.2% or approximately 61,333 African American deaths were cancer related.

While there is an overall reversing trend in U.S. cancer incidence and death rates for most of the leading cancer sites, the need continues for new and better interventions to improve access to and use of culturally sensitive cancer education programs developed for African Americans. Recognizing this, the National Cancer Institute's Office of Special Populations Networks for Cancer Research and Training (SPN) announced, in 1999, the availability of funds to develop and implement community-based cancer control and prevention activities for minority and underserved populations, with the aim of raising cancer awareness, reducing cancer incidence and mortality, increasing cancer survival, and improving access to health care.

As one of the grantees, the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer (NBLIC), which was established in 1986 by the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute, re-launched itself as the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer II: Network Project (NBLIC II). Streamlining its original list of targeted communities, the NBLIC II: Network Project now concentrates on 23 more densely populated African American, high-prevalence cancer communities (HPCC). The Project will be implemented in three phases over a five- year funding period, and will include the following objectives:

• Establishment of a national network of African American cancer control experts, expert researchers, clinicians, and others providing services to minority populations to deliver awareness and education activities to African American, high prevalence cancer communities (HPCC).
  
  
• Implementation of capacity-building strategies within community-based coalitions.
  
  
• Formation of academic and clinical partnerships and development of relevant collaborative research projects.
  
  
• Development and implementation of "Best Practices" for identified cancer focus areas to be delivered through awareness seminars, lectures, health fairs, and other community outreach efforts.
  
  
• Collaboration with national agencies concerned with cancer control.
  
  
• Initiation of partnerships with major cancer care providers in an effort to increase African American accrual to treatment and prevention clinical trials protocols.
  
  
• Facilitation of recruitment and training of Black health care providers.
  

The NBLIC II National Office, housed on the Morehouse School of Medicine campus in Atlanta, Georgia, will serve as the Coordinating Center for all Regional and Coalition activities. Dr. David Satcher, Interim President of Morehouse School of Medicine and NBLIC II Principal Investigator, the NBLIC II Steering Committee, and several cancer-control experts will provide general oversight and direction for the NBLIC II Network Project.