In December of 1971, Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, which dedicated $1.5 billion over the ensuing several years to cancer research. It was a pivotal moment of the “War on Cancer,” a movement that emerged in the 1960s that brought a new sense of urgency to cancer research. Many thought that the discovery of chemotherapy’s potential to cure cancer was the final frontier in fighting the disease, but they lacked a thorough understanding of cancer as a disease, which meant they had no way of predi … (read more)
