[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.