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