It's never more than a phone call away. And when people in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia dial in, their calls are routed to the regional office in Durham, directed by the NCI and administered by Duke's Comprehensive Cancer Center. More calls come from families and friends of cancer patients, than from patients themselves. One way they can help is by being information gatherers.
Callers can also request printed materials free of charge.
While CIS provides information about cancer resources, it does not provide individual physician referral. And though Duke holds the regional contract, CIS does not act as a feeder service for this hospital. Importantly, CIS also does not offer medical advice, instead providing general consensus information from the Physicians Data Query Database. Callers are encouraged to contact their doctors for specific feedback. Additionally, many patients focus on being good patients.