Cancer Control Month, 1999

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Part III

The President

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Proclamation 7177--Cancer Control Month, 1999

Proclamation 7178--National Child Abuse Prevention Month, 1999

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7177 of April 1, 1999

Cancer Control Month, 1999

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Each year for more than half a century, our Nation has
dedicated the month of April to reaffirming our
commitment to developing more effective prevention,
detection, and treatment of cancer and to recognizing
the progress that we have made in fighting this
devastating disease.

Today we are reaping the rewards of our long-standing
efforts to combat cancer as researchers make remarkable
progress virtually every day. Over the past several
years, for example, scientists have identified genes
involved in a number of cancers, including cancers of
the breast, prostate, kidney, skin, and colon. In the
first year of the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project at the
National Cancer Institute (NCI), researchers succeeded
in identifying more than 300,000 DNA sequences and
12,000 new genes--double the initial expectation. The
newly created Cancer Genetics Network will help
scientists answer the many clinical questions raised by
these discoveries. This national network will link
participating cancer research centers and strengthen
their efforts not only to identify genes that
predispose people to cancer, but also to learn better
methods for counseling, testing, and monitoring people
for cancer susceptibility. These and other recent
advances are providing Americans with our most powerful
weapons to defeat cancer: early detection and immediate
treatment.

Recognizing the great promise such findings hold for
our battle against cancer, my Administration has
dedicated unprecedented Federal resources toward cancer
research. The omnibus appropriations bill I signed this
past October increased funding for the NCI by $400
million. This increase--the single largest increase in
funding for cancer and medical research in history--
sets the NCI budget at nearly $3 billion, enabling it
to fund critical new research, including 10 new
clinical trials for breast cancer treatment. Last year
we saw one of the most significant advances to date in
cancer prevention research with the discoveries from
the landmark Breast Cancer Prevention Trial. This
study, a national clinical trial sponsored by the NCI,
found that the incidence of breast cancer fell by 49
percent among women taking the anti-estrogen drug
tamoxifen. Based upon this finding, last October, the
Food and Drug Administration approved tamoxifen for
preventative use by women at risk for breast cancer.

Through the Department of Defense, we are also awarding
$60 million in grants for prostate cancer research.
These grants are funding innovative new studies to
determine the causes of prostate cancer, develop new
methods of prevention and detection, and discover
groundbreaking new treatments to save lives. In
addition, we have worked to accelerate the approval
process for new cancer drugs to ensure that cancer
patients have access to the latest and most effective
treatments, all while maintaining the highest of safety
standards.

Although these and other recent advances are
encouraging, we must not be complacent. The occurrence
of cancer is still too common, and the suffering it
causes is incalculable. As we stand on the threshold of
a new millennium, let us draw strength from the
successes of the past and reaffirm our determination to
treat, prevent, and ultimately eradicate cancer.

In 1938, the Congress of the United States passed a
joint resolution (52 Stat. 148; 36 U.S.C. 150)
requesting the President to issue an annual
proclamation declaring April to be ``Cancer Control
Month.''

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim April 1999
as Cancer Control Month. I invite the Governors of the
50 States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the
Mayor of the District of Columbia, and the appropriate
officials of all other areasunder the American flag to
issue similar proclamations. I also ask health care
professionals, private industry, community groups,
insurance and managed care companies, and all other
interested organizations and individuals to unite in
renewing our Nation's commitment to controlling cancer.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
first day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and ninety-nine, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
third.