In 1971, President Nixon declared a "war on cancer" and initiated substantial funding for the National Cancer Program, which has been sustained through the years with a significant return on investment. Recently released 1998 statistics from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Cancer Society show the first real decline in cancer since the 1930s. Still, more than 1.2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year. New developments in biomedicine and advances in science and technology likely will lead to greater declines in cancer incidence and mortality.