Proclamation 4731—Cancer Control Month

One in four Americans now living will eventually develop cancer.

While emphasis on early detection and treatment of cancer has saved thousands of lives, the ultimate answers lie in its prevention. Efforts to discover the cause of this disease and to create ways to thwart its development are advancing on several fronts.

Many scientists maintain that our preventive efforts should be primarily environmental. They believe that many types of cancer will prove to be preventable through the identification and control of carcinogenic factors in our surroundings.

At the same time, we must pursue other areas of research as well. The search for new diagnostic and treatment techniques must continue as relentlessly as in the past. In 1980, about 785,000 people will be diagnosed as haying cancer. More than 400,000 will die of the disease.

The National Cancer Act, which became law in 1971, has fostered programs in all aspects of cancer research. Many programs have been created to ensure that newly found knowledge from the research sector is transferred into the daily practice of medicine.

As a means of focusing continued attention on the problem of cancer, the Congress, by joint resolution of March 28, 1938 (52 Stat. 148), has requested the President to issue an annual proclamation setting aside the month of April as Cancer Control Month.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of April, 1980, as Cancer Control Month. I encourage the American people to meet the challenge of this critical health problem. I ask the medical and health professions, the communications industries, and all other interested citizens to unite in public reaffirmation of our Nation's abiding commitment to cancer control.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourth.

JIMMY CARTER