[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]
[[Page 16383]]
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Part X
The President
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Proclamation 7075--Cancer Control Month, 1998
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 63 / Thursday, April 2, 1998 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 16385]]
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.
[[Page 16386]]
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
