H-0970.1  _______________________________________________

                     HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4004

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

By Representatives Dickerson, Cody, Skinner, O'Brien, Veloria, Kessler, McIntire, Wood, Lovick, Romero, Conway, Ruderman, Hurst and Kenney

Read first time 01/20/1999.  Referred to Committee on Health Care.

Urging support of prostate cancer research.

    TO THE HONORABLE WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

    We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

    WHEREAS, Prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer in men; and

    WHEREAS, The American Cancer Society estimates that, in 1998, in the United States, approximately two hundred ten thousand new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed and approximately forty-two thousand American men died of prostate cancer; and

    WHEREAS, With an estimated nine million American men currently afflicted, prostate cancer amounts to an epidemic in the United States; and

    WHEREAS, African-American men have the highest incidence of prostate cancer of any population of men in the world today; and

    WHEREAS, The number of prostate cancer cases successfully diagnosed has increased significantly over the past thirty-five years, partly as a result of the widespread use of improved screening techniques, including screening for the prostate cancer antigen; and

    WHEREAS, Awareness needs to be strengthened, to alert men of ages fifty and above to the risk of and treatments for prostate cancer; and

    WHEREAS, Significantly more research is needed to determine the causes and most effective treatments for prostate cancer; and

    WHEREAS, The National Prostate Cancer Coalition, a network of prostate cancer patients' advocates and support organizations, has presented five hundred thousand signatures to the United States Congress and the President, urging increased research funding for prostate cancer;

    NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the United States support increased federal funding for prostate cancer research.

    BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

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