(With an Introduction by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. and a
Foreword by Congressman David Obey)
In this book, world-cancer-expert Dr. Samuel Epstein indicts
the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society
for responsibility in losing the cancer war.
We are not winning the war against cancer. We are losing the
war. The number of Americans getting cancer each year has escalated
over recent decades, while our ability to treat and cure most
common cancers has remained virtually unchanged.
Dr. Epstein states: "The
National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society have
misled and confused the public and Congress
by repeated false claims that we are winning the war against
cancer _ claims made to create public and Congressional support
for massive increases in budgetary appropriations."
The Politics of Cancer Revisited will make headlines as Dr.
Epstein again comes head-to-head with the cancer establishment,
disputing their claims with thorough documentation, clarifying
misleading statistics, exposing budgetary shell games, and defining
the political and economic reasons, rather than lack of scientific
information, for the losing cancer war.
For the first time, the
American public will find out the truth behind the much-acclaimed "War Against Cancer" in a thoroughly
documented expos, of the policies and priorities of the cancer
establishment _ the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American
Cancer Society (ACS). The Politics of Cancer Revisited challenges
misleading claims that we have "turned the tide against cancer" and
shows how the establishment is largely responsible for losing
the winnable war against cancer. With equal accuracy and vigor,
the book provides vital information _ long ignored or trivialized
by the cancer establishment _ on a wide range of avoidable causes
of cancer and on how readers and their families can protect themselves
against cancer.
Backed by meticulously detailed documentation, The Politics
of Cancer Revisited, which follows the author's landmark book
of 20 years ago, is a scorching indictment of the cancer establishment
sure to stun readers with its revelations. They will learn:
- That in spite of over $20 billion
expenditures since the "War
against Cancer" was launched by President Nixon in 1971,
there has been little if any significant improvement in
treatment
and survival rates for most common cancers, in spite of
contrary misleading hype by the cancer establishment --
the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) and American Cancer Society (ACS).
- That the cancer establishment remains myopically fixated
on damage control -- diagnosis and treatment -- and basic genetic
research, with, not always benign, indifference to cancer prevention.
Meanwhile, the incidence of cancer, including nonsmoking cancers,
has escalated to epidemic proportions with lifetime cancer
risks now approaching 50%.
- That the NCI has a long track record of budgetary shell games
in efforts to mislead Congress and the public with its claim
that it allocates substantial resources to cancer prevention.
Over the last year, the NCI has made a series of widely divergent
claims, ranging from $480 million to $1 billion, for its prevention
budget while realistic estimates are well under $100 million.
- That the NCI allocates less than 1% of its budget to research
on occupational cancer -- the most avoidable of all cancers
-- which accounts for well over 10% of all adult cancer deaths,
besides being a major cause of childhood cancer.
- That cancer establishment policies,
particularly those of the ACS, are strongly influenced
by pervasive conflicts
of
interest with the cancer drug and other industries. As
admitted by former NCI director Samuel Broder, the NCI
has become "what
amounts to a governmental pharmaceutical company."
- That the MD Anderson Comprehensive
Cancer Center was sued in August, 1998 for making unsubstantiated
claims
that it cures "well
over 50% of people with cancer."
- That the NCI, with enthusiastic support from the ACS -- the
tail that wags the NCI dog -- has effectively blocked funding
for research and clinical trials on promising non-toxic alternative
cancer drugs for decades, in favor of highly toxic and largely
ineffective patented drugs developed by the multibillion dollar
global cancer drug industry. Additionally, the cancer establishment
has systematically harassed the proponents of non-toxic alternative
cancer drugs.
- That, as reported in The Chronicle
of Philanthropy, the ACS is "more interested in accumulating wealth than saving lives." Furthermore,
it is the only known "charity" that makes contributions
to political parties.
- That the NCI and ACS have embarked on unethical trials with
two hormonal drugs, tamoxifen and Evista, in ill-conceived
attempts to prevent breast cancer in healthy women while suppressing
evidence that these drugs are known to cause liver and ovarian
cancer, respectively, and in spite of the short-term lethal
complications of tamoxifen. The establishment also proposes
further chemoprevention trials this fall on tamoxifen, and
also Evista, in spite of two published long-term European studies
on the ineffectiveness of tamoxifen. This represents medical
malpractice verging on the criminal.
- That the ACS and NCI have failed to provide Congress and
regulatory agencies with available scientific information on
a wide range of unwitting exposures to avoidable carcinogens
in air, water, the workplace, and consumer products -- food,
cosmetics and toiletries, and household products. As a result,
corrective legislative and regulatory action have not been
taken.
- That the cancer establishment has also failed to provide
the public, particularly African American and underprivileged
ethnic groups with their disproportionately higher cancer incidence
rates, with information on avoidable carcinogenic exposures,
thus depriving them of their right-to-know and effectively
preventing them from taking action to protect themselves --
a flagrant denial of environmental justice.
It should be recognized that Dr. Epstein's
charges against the cancer establishment have been supported
by some 65 leading national public health and preventive
medicine experts, including past directors of federal agencies.
Biographical Information
SAMUEL S. EPSTEIN, M.D., Professor of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine at the School of Public Health, University of Illinois
Medical Center at Chicago, is an internationally recognized authority
on the toxic and carcinogenic effects of environmental pollutants
in air, water, and the workplace, and of ingredients and contaminants
in consumer products _ food, cosmetics, and household products.
He is author of 260 scientific articles and ten books, including
the prize-winning The Politics of Cancer (1978), and The Politics
of Cancer Revisited (1998), and co-author of The Legislation
of Product Safety: Consumer Health and Product Hazards (1976),
Hazardous Wastes in America (1982), The Safe Shopper's Bible
(1995), and The Breast Cancer Prevention Program (1998), besides
numerous editorials in leading national newspapers.
Dr. Epstein's activities in the interface between science and
public policy include: consultant to the U.S. Senate Committee
on Public Works; frequent invited Congressional testimony; and
membership on key federal agency advisory committees, including
the Health Effects Advisory Committee of EPA and the Department
of Labor Advisory Committee on the Regulation of Occupational
Carcinogens. He was the key expert involved in the banning of
hazardous products and pesticides, including DDT, Aldrin, and
Chlordane, and is the leading international expert on the public
health hazards of biosynthetic bovine growth hormone (rBGH) used
for increasing milk production, and of sex hormones used for
fattening cattle in feedlots.
Dr. Epstein is past chairman of the Air Pollution Control Association
Committee on Biological Effects of Air Pollutants; President
of the Society of Occupational and Environmental Health; Founder
and Secretary of the Environmental Mutagen Society; President
of the Rachel Carson Council, Inc.; and advisor to a wide range
of organized labor, public interest, and citizen activist groups.
He is currently Chairman of the nationwide Cancer Prevention
Coalition.
Dr. Epstein has extensive media experience, involving numerous
invited appearances on the major national TV networks, including
Sixty Minutes, Face the Nation, Meet the Press, McNeil/Lehrer,
Donahue, Good Morning America, and the Today Show. He has also
had frequent appearances on Canadian, European, Australian, and
Japanese TV.
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