What is the difference between OCCAM and NCCAM?
The Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) is one of many offices and divisions within the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI is one of over twenty Institutes and Centers (IC’s) comprising the NIH. The OCCAM was established in October 1998 to coordinate and enhance the activities of the NCI in the field of CAM. The OCCAM is administratively under the Office of the Deputy Director of Extramural Science at the NCI and its responsibilities are to coordinate the NCI’s CAM research and information initiatives and to serve as the NCI’s liaison to other organizations involved in CAM and cancer, including the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). The NCCAM is another of the Institutes and Centers (IC’s) comprising the NIH. The NIH is one of eight health agencies within the Public Health Service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). In 1998, the Congress established the NCCAM to replace the Office of Alternative
