Future Plans for Cancer Control

We are now less than 12 years from the year 2000. During that short period, largely as a result of a program that was due to begin in 1985, the National Cancer Institute hopes to reduce cancer mortality by 25% to 50%.1This goal has rightly been extensively discussed, largely in terms of the feasibility of achieving that objective.2,3In this issue ofTHE JOURNAL, Breslow and Cumberland4introduce an additional perspective, the need for greater emphasis on application of current knowledge and research on cancer prevention, though they also devote considerable space to a discussion of the feasibility issue. While agreeing with much of what they say, I would like to try and change the focus of the discussion in a way that I hope may be more productive for cancer control. My major concern is that the facts should be correctly interpreted and that our