National Cancer Institute, Research Contracts Branch, Cancer Etiology Contracts Section, Executive Plaza South, Rm. 620, 6120 Executive Blvd., MSC 7224, Bethesda, MD 20892-7224

A -- RECORD LINKAGE STUDIES UTILIZING RESOURCES IN POPULATION-BASED TUMOR REGISTRIES SOL RFP N01-CP-81027-21 DUE 010598 POC Barbara A. Shadrick, Contracting Officer, 301/496-8611 WEB: NCI Requests for Proposals, http://rcb.nci.nih.gov/rfp.htm. E-MAIL: Barbara A. Shadrick, bs92y@nih.gov. ELECTRONIC RFP ANNOUNCEMENT. POTENTIAL OFFERORS WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DOWNLOADING THEIR OWN COPY OF THE SOLICITATION AND AMENDMENTS. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB), is seeking offerors for a Master Agreement (MA) Pool for Record Linkage Studies. A MA will be awarded under this title to each acceptable offeror. The NCI wishes to contract with population-based tumor registries in the United States and other countries in order to collaborate in the conduct of record-linkage and subsequent analytical investigations. The duties required in support of the record-linkage studies include: develop a study plan which includes the evaluation of existing records that are potentially valuable for record-linkage, develop or apply the appropriate record-linkage procedures to link a "population file" with the cancer registry files, and provide results of the record-linkage study to the Project Officer either on computer tape or in tabulated form as requested. After the record-linkage study has been completed, it may be desirable to consider additional analytical investigations that require data beyond that found on computer tapes. Offerors should have cancer incidence data for all patients diagnosed within a defined geographic locale for at least five years during the previous decade, 1980-1989, and have the ability to ascertain all cancer cases within the registries' catchment area of women of all age groups and U.S. minority populations, as appropriate. The offerors must have experience in the collection of cancer data from a variety of medical sources and multiple institutions, and must have legal authority to collect medical data within the given geographic area or be able to demonstrate the willingness of all medical facilities within that area to participate in data collection and patient follow-up activities. Master Agreements will be awarded to all respondents whose technical proposal is considered acceptable. The Master Agreement award is non-monetary and is exclusively for the purpose of compiling a pool of contractors who are pre-qualified to perform services for epidemiologic studies of cancer utilizing the resources of population-based tumor registries. Each Master Agreement holder will be eligible to compete for future contract awards to carry out specific record-linkage and subsequent analytical studies. Master Agreement holders receiving a contract award will be selected through this pool, based on technical merit and on budgetary considerations for the specified tasks involved. The current MA Pool is effective for a four-year period from March 15, 1996 through March 14, 2000. Any Master Agreements awarded as a result of this solicitation will be in effect from the effective date of the MA award through the end date of the existing pool (March 14, 2000). The Master Agreement mechanism is a pre-qualification to enable qualified sources to compete for and perform future contracts which will be awarded based on Request for Proposals (RFPs). The MA itself is unfunded. The obligation of funds shall be accomplished solely through the award of contracts. All responsible sources meeting these criteria are encouraged to submit a proposal and will be considered by the NCI. The RFP may be accessed through the Research Contracts Branch Home Page by using the following Internet address: http://rcb.nci.nih.gov/rfp.htm. It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor the above Internet site for the release of this solicitation and amendments, if any. POTENTIAL OFFERORS WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DOWNLOADING THEIR OWN COPY OF THE SOLICITATION AND AMENDMENTS. No collect calls will be accepted. (0309)

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