National Action Plan for Breast Cancer

When President Clinton accepted the National Breast Cancer Coalition Petition and Call for Action in October, he promised a major planning conference in December.

Today at the National Institutes of Health, HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala convened a conference of individuals from advocacy groups, government, industry, health care, medical research, academia, and foundations to establish a National Action Plan on Breast Cancer.

"We need to be taking immediate and effective action, and we need to work together to pool our resources and knowledge to defeat breast cancer," she said. "This is the first time people from so many different disciplines will share their perspectives to set a national agenda on breast cancer."

Conference goals include identifying issues of national priority and developing an immediate action agenda.

"Our purpose is not to produce an elaborate scheme or a lengthy document," she said. "We want to get to the point quickly, to identify what we know and what we need to know. Much is already underway in many different quarters. What is needed now is an action agenda that can help coordinate and focus our energies immediately."

Participants included experts and leaders in prevention, screening, research and treatment. Attendees were to take part in breakout sessions focusing on 10 areas, to develop recommendations for the final Action Plan:

• Education of health care providers;
• Education of consumers;
• Education of the scientific community;
• Access to and delivery of health care for breast cancer;
• Basic research;
• Applied research;
• Epidemiology research;
• Translation of research into practice;
• Information dissemination and coordination; and
• Health care policy and regulation.

Secretary Shalala was chair of the conference. Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Rep. Louise Slaughter were scheduled to be among the welcoming speakers as the conference opened.

Other participants included Fran Visco, president of the Breast Cancer Coalition; Nancy Brinker, chair of the President's Cancer Panel Special Commission on Breast Cancer; and Zora Brown, president of the Breast Cancer Resource Committee.

NIH Director Harold Varmus, M.D., was scheduled to deliver the keynote address. Other participants came from throughout the federal government and the private sector.