Lance Armstrong and 17th U.S. Surgeon General Carmona Announce National Call to Action in the War Agai...( AUSTIN Texas Jan. 18 /- Joined by...),Health

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Joined by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Lance Armstrong and immediate past Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona today discussed Lance's request to the Surgeons General Collective to create a national strategy to combat cancer.

"This year alone, 1.4 million Americans are expected to be diagnosed with cancer and 560,000 will likely lose their lives to the disease," said Lance Armstrong, founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF). "Cancer has become an epidemic that touches every single American life and costs our economy over $300 billion every year. The time has come to move aggressively against this foe and that is why I have asked Dr. Carmona to lead the Surgeons General Collective in forming a national strategy to fight cancer. This strategy will serve as a roadmap for the American people and our leaders, including the next President, to save millions of lives by improving access to care and focusing on cancer prevention and survivorship."

Richard Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, 17th Surgeon General of the United States (2002-2006) and President of Canyon Ranch Institute, formed the Surgeons General Collective, an independent body composed of the previous Surgeons General of the United States, in October 2007 to address national and global public health issues. At Lance's request, the first major public health issue this independent scientific body will take up is to develop a national call to action focused on cancer prevention and survivorship.

"Despite earnest efforts in the medical and research community, government and advocacy groups, and many concerned citizens, we have yet to achieve the level of momentum and national coordination necessary to win the war against cancer," said Dr. Carmona. "The need and the urgency to make cancer prevention and survivorship a national priority should be clear to all of us, but the level of action and progress is not nearly what it sho
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