    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 13 (Monday, April 5, 1999)]
    [Pages 569-570]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 7157--Cancer Control Month, 1999

    April 1, 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.

    [[Page 570]]

    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 areas under 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.
                                                William J. Clinton

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., April 6,
    1999]

    Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register, on
    April 7.