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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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heard about it a great deal of hope and excitement.

Now we come to, how did we --

Q:

May I ask one question about that? Will this new technique, this new approach for the breast cancer be utilized in the specialized cancer centers you told me about last time?

Lasker:

Yes, I would hope so. Idon't think they necessarily will be all using the same drug. They'll probably some be trying to find better combinations, or ones that they can use over a longer period or combine them with immunotherapy. I don't know just what will happen, but the treatment of breast cancer after operation will be sure to change, in large numbers of places in the United States and in the world, after this announcement. They're waiting until September because then it will be precisely 2 1/2 years since the study started.

Well, having heard this, I decided that we should let the Congress knowabout it. The mark up in the House was very confused, because contract authority had gone out, and the sub committee didn't understand it really, but the chairman, Mr. Flood, really understood it. But they only added five million to the President's 600 million appropriation for cancer for fiscal '75. This infuriated me, because I saw that in order to get a lot done quickly, about these new drugs, aur the possibility of new ways of treating other types of tumors, and it's a revolution, to treat cancer promptly after operation. The former attitude has been, well, leave it until they re-occur and then treat them with heavy doses





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