A technicians hand holding test tubes, microscope, laboratory tools used at the National Cancer Institute, 1939. In 1937 President Roosevelt signed legislation establishing the National Cancer Institute to support research on the causes, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The new agency's 1938 budget was $400,000. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S. National Cancer Program and conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other activities related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; the supportive care of cancer patients and their families; and cancer survivorship. No photographer credited, dated 1939.