Looking back at 40 years of cancer education

The American Association for Cancer Education and its antecedent organization, The Coordinators of Cancer Teaching, have been deeply interested in problems attendant to cancer pedagogy since 1948 at which time the first of 38 successive annual national conferences was held. This was in Chicago and attended by coordinators from medical schools which had been recipients from the National Cancer Institute of non-competitive categorical grants to improve the quality of undergraduate teaching of cancer. (They included dental schools in 1949 and osteopathic schools of medicine in 1953.) For the ensuing 18 years these conferences were held nationwide under the chairmanship of a coordinator elected from a representative group of interested institutions. This ushered in a period of competitive grants without fixed ceilings. Initially, they were awarded for three years. Programming was targeted for widening its scope and for participation of all qualified health service personnel interested in Cancer Education. Thus the Cancer Education Program of the AACE and its antecedent CCT can be summarized in four phases: [table: see text].