The American Cancer Society and comprehensive cancer centers.

Thank you, Dr. Cole. It is indeed an honor to be invited to attend this important event. What are the perspectives of the American Cancer Society in relation to the National Cancer Program-in particular, the comprehensive cancer centers? Our purpose as a voluntary health agency is to fight cancer in all ways, to mobilize, to serve as a catalytic agent for individuals, institutions and government. In 1937, intense lobbying by the society for a greater federal emphasis on cancer encouraged the Congress to select cancer as the first categorical disease institute of NIH. Over the years, the society became the ombudsman for the NCI before Congress, the White House and the public. We continued to serve as representatives of the private sector by encouraging the Senate panel of consultants on the conquest of cancer, by speaking up for the principles set forth in the panel's report, and by becoming the advocate during the National Cancer Act legislative process. We fought particularly for identification in the law of comprehensive cancer centers and cancer control, as separate considerations, and won. The society initiated and co-sponsored with NCI a national conference on cancer centers to explore their potential and update the developmental process. The concept of a comprehensive center serving as experts in research, treatment, education and rehabilitation in cancer isn't new. The late Dr. Sidney Farber-long a leader in the societyin 1964 stressed the idea of centers of special capabilities when he was a member of President Johnson's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke. Today, of the 18 comprehensive cancer centers strategically located around the country, some are moving ahead rapidly, some more slowly, a few are too new to evaluate. The most successful centers share a close, cooperative, mutually respectful relationship with all parts of the community including the local divisions and units of the American Cancer Society in the community based cancer control programs and cancer information services, and other programs. Here at Yale there has been an excellent relationship between the comprehensive cancer center and the Connecticut division of the society. Yale is certainly one of the foremost medical institutions in the world while the Connecticut division of the American Cancer Society is one of the best we have in the United States. The two working together provide the needed synergism. Physicians and scientists of the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center have served as