July 16, 1970

The Honorable George Murphy

United States Senate

Committee on Labor and Public Welfare
Washington, D.C. 20510

Bear Senator Murphy,

Thank you for your letter of July 3rd concerning your role in
the passage and implementation of S. Res. 376. I had not followed the
legislative history of this proposal and was therefore unaware that
you had indeed played a prominent role in it, a point which I am
delighted to learn at this tine.

The survey is, as you know, now under way in most intensive
fashion and there will be a wide variety of inputs to it. My own
personal point of view is that at the present time the outlook for
dramatic improvements in the treatment of cancer is not as promising
as the steps that we might undertake for its prevention, particularly
by protecting the population from the impact of a number of environ-
mental hazards whose role in cancer-production is beyond serious
dispute. We have then the prospect of learning how to apply the
advances in fundamental knowledge in molecular biology of recent
years towards more effective approaches at therapy as well.

Sincerely yours;

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics