[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 63 (Thursday, April 2, 1998)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 16385-16386]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-8933]


      

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Part X





The President





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Proclamation 7075--Cancer Control Month, 1998
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  Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 63 / Thursday, April 2, 1998 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

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                Proclamation 7075 of March 31, 1998

                
Cancer Control Month, 1998

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                While cancer still casts a shadow over the lives of 
                millions of Americans and their families, we can 
                rightfully look back over the 1990s as the decade in 
                which we measurably began to turn the tide against this 
                deadly disease. From 1990 to 1995, the annual number of 
                new cancer cases for every 100,000 Americans dropped 
                slightly but continuously. Perhaps more important, the 
                overall cancer death rate, which rose throughout the 
                1970s and 1980s, declined between 1991 and 1995, a 
                trend that continues today and that we hope will be 
                sustained into the next century. Thanks to years of 
                dedicated, rigorous scientific study, people with 
                cancer are now leading longer, healthier lives. More 
                than eight million Americans living today have had 
                cancer at some time, and these survivors are a powerful 
                reminder of the importance of maintaining our progress 
                in cancer research, prevention, and control.

                My Administration's new cancer initiative proposes an 
                unprecedented $4.7 billion investment in cancer 
                research through the National Institutes of Health 
                (NIH) over the next 5 years. This significant increase 
                in research funding has great potential to enhance 
                early detection and diagnoses of cancer, to speed the 
                discovery and development of new treatments, and to 
                provide all cancer patients and their caregivers with 
                improved access to the latest information about their 
                disease. Part of these increased funds will go to NIH's 
                Human Genome Project, which is helping to advance our 
                knowledge in the promising field of cancer genetics. 
                The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) recently unveiled 
                Cancer Genome Anatomy Project website is connecting 
                researchers to information on genetic factors that 
                determine how a particular cancer behaves--how fast it 
                grows, whether it will spread, and whether it will 
                respond to treatment--as they work to develop new ways 
                to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer.

                We are also continuing our aggressive cancer prevention 
                efforts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
                is entering the eighth year of its landmark National 
                Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection program. 
                This program brings critical breast and cervical cancer 
                screening services to previously underserved women, 
                including older women, uninsured or underinsured women, 
                women with low incomes, and women of racial and ethnic 
                minority groups. Medicare now provides coverage for 
                annual mammography screening and for Pap tests, pelvic 
                exams, and colorectal cancer screening. By January 
                2000, Medicare will also cover the costs of prostate 
                cancer screening tests.

                We are taking other important steps toward cancer 
                control as well. The NCI and the Food and Drug 
                Administration are working in partnership to ensure 
                that potentially effective drugs are expedited through 
                the development process so that new anticancer 
                therapies can be made available more rapidly to the 
                patients who need them. We are also proposing, as part 
                of our new cancer initiative, that Medicare 
                beneficiaries have the opportunity to participate in 
                certain cancer clinical trials. This will allow 
                patients to benefit from cutting-edge research and 
                provide scientists with a larger pool of participants 
                in their studies, helping to make the results more 
                statistically meaningful and scientifically sound.

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                If we follow our present course--investing in research, 
                translating research findings into medical practice, 
                and increasing access to improved diagnostic and 
                treatment programs--we can continue to make significant 
                progress in our crusade against cancer. We must not 
                slacken our efforts until we can fully control this 
                devastating disease and ultimately eradicate it.

                In 1938, the Congress of the United States passed a 
                joint resolution requesting the President to issue an 
                annual proclamation declaring April as ``Cancer Control 
                Month.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim April 1998 
                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 areas under the American flag to 
                issue similar proclamations. I also call upon health 
                care professionals, private industry, community groups, 
                insurance companies, and all interested organizations 
                and individuals to unite in reaffirming our Nation's 
                continuing commitment to controlling cancer.

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

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 98-8933
Filed 4-1-98; 11:52 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P