Mr. President, I would like to call the attention of my colleagues to a national health epidemic that kills 40,000 American men every year and strikes hundreds of thousands more each year–prostate cancer. I am concerned about this disease and its impact on American men, particularly its disproportionate impact on African-American men.
  For too long prostate cancer has been a silent killer. Too little has been known about it. Too little was said about it. Too little has been done about it. Fortunately, in recent years many prominent national figures like Senator Bob Dole, General Norman Schwarzkopf, Arnold Palmer, Sidney Poitier, Andy Grove, and Harry Belafonte have come forward to discuss their personal battles with prostate cancer. The admirable leadership of these men and others has helped educate the country about the importance of screening and early diagnosis of prostate cancer, and the need for all of us to do more to fight this disease.
  Mr. President, prostate cancer is the most commonly occurring non- skin cancer in the United States. In 1997, more than 200,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 41,800 died of the disease. Every three minutes a new case of prostate cancer is diagnosed and every 13 minutes someone dies from the disease. While it is often thought to be an older man’s disease, younger men are increasingly diagnosed with prostate cancer. In fact, about 20 percent of prostate cancers are now occurring in men between the ages of 40 and 60.
  Although prostate cancer accounts for approximately 20 percent of all new non-skin cancers, it receives less than four percent of federal cancer research funding. In 1996, approximately the same number of lives were lost due to prostate cancer breast cancer and AIDS. In 1997, however, while prostate cancer deaths continued to rise, deaths due to breast cancer and AIDS declined. Nevertheless, the federal commitment to prostate cancer research has not even kept pace with these other
priorities.
  Clearly, I am not advocating reduced funding for breast cancer or AIDS research programs. I have been one of the major champions of breast cancer and AIDS research funding. Rather, I use these comparisons to make the point that much more must be done to address the prostate cancer epidemic as well. How can we face the hundreds of thousands of men and their families who are daily affected by prostate cancer knowing, for instance, that more money was spent to make the movie Titanic–more than $200 million–than was spent in 1997 by the federal government for prostate cancer research–only $120 million?
  The possibility and the fear of developing prostate cancer are common to all men. One in five American men will develop prostate cancer during his lifetime. As frightening as that statistic may be for the general population, it is even more pointed in the African-American community. African-American men have a prostate cancer incidence more than 30 percent higher than for any other ethnic groups in this country and the highest in the world.
  The prostate cancer mortality rate for African-American men is more than twice that of white American men. Researchers do not yet know why this is true and do not yet have answers to these and the many other questions about prostate cancer. For example, it is not clear which prostate cancer patients will benefit from traditional treatments, like surgery or radiation. The economic status of many African-American men, and limited access to medical counseling further complicated treatment decisions.
  Those who are devoted to relieving the burden of prostate cancer in the African-American community, including scientists, health care providers, national organizations, community leaders, and survivors alike, are united in their desire to find answers to these questions. I am particularly pleased with the leadership of many national organizations in informing the country about the impact of prostate cancer in the African-American community. In November of last year, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sponsored A Leadership Council on Prostate Cancer in the African-American Community. In cooperation with the Intercultural Cancer Council, the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer, the National Prostate Cancer Coalition and the 100 Black Men of America, the Leadership Conference proposed a blueprint for action that aims to solve the problem of prostate cancer in the African-American community.
  These private organizations–and many others–are working very hard at the community and national levels to see that the prostate cancer epidemic is addressed. That a letter that 29 organizations representing the African-American community sent to Congress in May laying out a research funding agenda to attack this problem be printed in the Record.