Former President George Bush and his wife, Barbara, have invited Dr. Harold Moses, director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, to participate in the “National Dialogue on Cancer.”
The Bushes are co-chairs of this initiative, the brainchild of a group of well-respected cancer leaders. The steering committee included: Dr. Harold Freeman, chair of the President’s Cancer Panel; Dr. Richard Klausner, director of the National Cancer Institute; Dr. LaSalle Leffall, professor of surgery at Howard University; Dr. James Markes of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention; and Dr. John Seffrin, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.
“Our goal is to put together an aggressive and energetic, but also realistic, initiative that can make a real difference in the cancer battle,” Bush said. “We do not want to make false promises, but we also want to do more than offer just hope – we want to facilitate the offering of solutions.”
Other participants are Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, ABC newsman Sam Donaldson and representatives of leading cancer centers, non-profit groups and the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
The group will meet in Washington, D.C., May 4.