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 -- THE AGRICULTURAL HEALTH STUDY -- FIELD STATIONS SOL N01-CP-81002-50 DUE 060297 POC Karen L. McFarlane, Contracting Officer. 301-496-8611 WEB: National Cancer Institute, http://cbdnet.access.gpo.gov. E-MAIL: Karen L. McFarlane, McFarlak@RCB.NCI.NIH.GOV. The Occupational Epidemiology Branch (OEB), National Cancer Institute (NCI) is seeking contractors to perform the above named project. This contract will maintain field stations for the prospective cohort study in North Carolina and/or Iowa. A cohort of approximately 52,000 has been established in Iowa and 30,000 in North Carolina that can be followed prospectively for 10 years or more to obtain detailed information on agricultural exposures, diet, cooking practices, and other factors of etiologic interest for cancer and other diseases. Field Stations shall be located in North Carolina and Iowa, states with population-based cancer registries and pesticide applicator registries. The entire cohort will include farm owner/operators (approximately 53,000), their spouses (approximately 23,000), and commercial applicators (approximately 6,000 -- all from Iowa). A new questionnaire will be administered to the cohort under this contract to supplement questionnaire information previously collected from this cohort when it was assembled. The types of support to be provided by the Contractor in the conduct of the studies include: study re-initiation and liaison, use of study materials (e.g., questionnaires ), CATI interviewing, other data collection (e.g, pathology records, death certificates), data preparation, data processing, drawing buccal swabs from every member of the cohort in a non-clinical setting (anticipate 50 percent response rate for this portion of the study), collecting tumor tissue samples from selected cancer cases (assume 400 cases) for storage at the Coordinating Center, study monitoring, quality control and reporting. These tasks may vary. Communication between the Contractor and NCI will often be on a daily basis with regularly scheduled conference calls to be held monthly and meetings with the NCI Project Officer in Rockville, Maryland every six months. The Contractor must be capable of: administering a 15-minute CATI questionnaire and achieve at least a 75 percent participation rate; linkingthe AHS cohort to the State Cancer Registry and Vital Statistics Office mortality file to determine cancer incidence and mortality from all causes; and collecting buccal swabs from a large fraction of the cohort and subsequently sending the buccal swabs to a designated laboratory. Personal computers shall be used wherever possible for data processing and manipulation. The NIH/DCRT computer facility (which has IBM computers) shall be accessed by remote terminals to be provided by the Contractor on their own premises. The Contractor shall provide monthly and annual progress reports, monthly budget reports, and a final technical progress report. Other deliverables shall include computerized data, raw data, and biologic specimens. The estimated level of effort to be provided is 64,610 total direct labor hours for the entire period of performance for the entire cohort developed at all Field Stations. Direct labor hours at individual Field Stations should be estimated in proportion to the number of cohort members that have been enrolled into the study in Iowa or North Carolina. The Contractor must meet the following three Mandatory Qualification Criteria at the time of receipt of Best and Final Offers (BAFO) for their proposal to be considered any further by the Contracting Officer: 1) The Contractor must document that they have received authorization from the appropriate state official to access the cancer registry of North Carolina and/or Iowa for the purpose of matching the Agricultural Health Study Cohort to the registry on an annual basis. 2) The offerors seeking the Field Station contract must demonstrate/document that they have a field office in North Carolina and/or Iowa with all the resources necessary to conduct this study by the anticipated start date of the contract. 3) The Contractor must document the willingness of the state and local extension service and the state department of Agriculture, to support the activities enumerated in the scope of work of this RFP. All responsible sources meeting these criteria are encouraged to submit an offer and will be considered by the National Cancer Institute. The contract will be a cost-reimbursement, completion type for a 60-month period. It is anticipated that the solicitation package will be available on/about April 14, 1997, with proposals due 45 days after the issue date of the RFP. Award is anticipated by December 30, 1997. No collect calls will be accepted. All requests for this RFP must be in writing or by fax. The fax number is (301) 480-0241. National Cancer Institute, Research Contracts Branch, OD, Cancer Epidemiology Contracts Section, Executive Plaza South, Room 620. (0070)

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