FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, February 20, 2003

For More Information Contact:

Kalee Kreider, Fenton Communications, 202-822-5200

Elisabeth Ensley, Environmental Media Services 202-463-6670

NEW REPORT "THE STOP CANCER BEFORE IT STARTS CAMPAIGN" RELEASED TODAY

Report Demonstrates Cancer Epidemic Continues

Despite Allocation of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars

WASHINGTON - Today, the Cancer Prevention Coalition (CPC) released a landmark report entitled, "The Stop Cancer Before It Starts Campaign: How to Win the Losing War Against Cancer." This report is an updated and expanded version of a recent publication in the peer-reviewed prestigious International Journal of Health Services and is sponsored and endorsed by some 100 leading scientists and experts in cancer prevention, policymakers and non-governmental organizations. The report is expected to trigger an investigation into the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

The report finds that:

• Despite repeated assurances by the National Cancer Institute of major progress in the war against cancer, the incidence of cancer has escalated to epidemic proportions since passage of the 1971 National Cancer Act. Cancer now strikes about 1.3 million and kills about 550,000 annually; nearly one in two men and more than one in three women now develop cancer in their lifetimes.

• The escalating incidence of cancer does not reflect lack of resources. Since 1970, NCI’s budget has increased 30-fold from $150 million, reaching $4.6 billion for 2003; annual revenues of the American Cancer Society (ACS) are approximately $800 million. The NCI has exaggerated the amount of funding designated for prevention. Paradoxically, NCI’s escalating budget is paralleled by the escalating incidence of cancer. Accordingly, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a leading member of Congress, is calling for an investigation by the General Accounting Office.

• While smoking is unquestionably the single largest cause of cancer, the incidence of lung cancer in men has declined sharply. In striking contrast, as emphasized by leading epidemiologist, Dr. Richard Clapp, there have been major increases in the incidence of predominantly non-smoking cancers in men and women, as well as in childhood cancers. The incidence of cancer is disproportionately higher among Black Americans. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), a leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus, has expressed concerns as to the grave implications of this racial imbalance.

• Apart from basic research, the NCI and ACS -- the "cancer establishment" --remains fixated on treatment rather than prevention. NCI and ACS failed to develop meaningful strategies on a wide range of causes of cancers -- such as childhood, ovarian and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma -- from avoidable exposures to industrial carcinogens, prescription drugs and diagnostic radiation.

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the nation's leading charity watchdog, has charged that the ACS is "more interested in accumulating wealth than in saving lives."

“The decades-long silence of the cancer establishment on a wide range of avoidable causes of cancer, other than personal lifestyle, has tacitly encouraged powerful corporate polluters and industries to continue manufacturing carcinogenic products,” warns Cancer Prevention Coalition Chairman, Dr. Samuel Epstein.

“This silence also reflects an effective denial of citizens' fundamental Right-to-Know, compromises their empowerment, and results in serious environmental injustice by unnecessarily sacrificing their health and welfare,” warns Dr. Nicholas Ashford, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology public policy expert.

Independent cancer prevention scientists and public policy experts, strongly supported by representatives of labor, environmental, consumer and activist cancer groups, socially responsible businesses and practitioners of integrative and holistic medicine, are engaged in developing the grass roots THE STOP CANCER BEFORE IT STARTS Campaign. For more information, visit the CPC website at www.preventcancer.com.

###