World cancer expert, Dr. Samuel Epstein, Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the School of Public Health, University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, author of 260 scientific articles, ten books, current Chairman of Cancer Prevention Coalition, 1998 winner of the Right Lively Award, and “Alternative Nobel” Winner, recently spoke at the Long Beach Convention Center, in Long Beach, California. In his most recent book, The Politics of Cancer Revisited, he states on the cover of his book, “We are not winning the war against cancer. We are losing the war. The number of Americans getting cancer each year has escalated over recent decades, while our ability to treat and cure most common cancers has remained virtually unchanged.” He further claims the following statements: “The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society have misled and confused the public and Congress by repeated false claims that we are winning the war against cancer–claims made to create public and congressional support for massive increases in budgetary appropriations” (Epstein 341). In spite of the “War against Cancer” that President Nixon launched in 197l, there has been little significant improvement in treatment of cancer, contrary to the NCI and American Cancer Society (ACS). He also notes that NCI’s realistic budget estimates are well under $100 million towards cancer prevention although NCI has made claims that their prevention budget ranges from $480 million to $1 billion (Epstein 206). Samuel Broder, former NCI director admitted that “NCI has become what amounts to a governmental pharmaceutical company” (qtd. in Epstein 496). NCI and the ACS have also blocked funding for research and clinical trials on promoting non-toxic alternative cancer drugs, but are in favor of highly toxic and ineffective patented drugs developed by the drug industry, while harassing the proponents of non-toxic alternative cancer drugs. Epstein quotes from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, that “ACS is more interested in accumulating wealth than saving lives, and is the only known charity that makes contributions to political parties” (Epstein 464). More statements include that NCI and ACS are involved in unethical trials of two hormonal drugs, tamoxifen and Evista, anti-cancer drugs targeted to prevent breast cancer in healthy women, yet suppressing evidence that these drugs are known to cause liver and ovarian cancer, in spite of two published long-term European studies on the effectiveness of tamoxifen. This, he states, represents medical malpractice. Dr. Epstein’s charges against the cancer establishment have been supported by sixty-five leading national public health and preventive medicine experts, including past directors of federal agencies. He spoke to a group of two thousand health care advocates regarding these statements and the politics of cancer focusing on the public’s rights to know, which is the essence of democracy, the information, which impacts our lives, health, and welfare. The fundamental challenge is to obtain basic information not made available. Dr. Epstein explains that Congress cannot be relied on, because they are not given proper information from ACS and NCI so it becomes the consumer’s task to take responsibility to gain further information and education (Epstein Lecture).