Breast cancer is a major public health problem that warrants the most serious efforts by the State to reduce its ravages. It is the leading cause of death among women age 40 to 44, reaching almost epidemic proportions in recent years. The mortality of breast cancer can be dramatically reduced if the disease is detected at its initial stage. Therefore, an aggressive and comprehensive program of breast cancer detection is critically important.

The means for treating this serious problem may be at hand through improved techniques of early detection and new methods of treatment. Programs for detection, however, are rarely properly organized or coordinated with the essential treatment and follow-up services.

Therefore, I, Hugh L. Carey, Governor of the State of New York, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Laws of the State of New York, in order to insure that the State assume a leadership role in coordinating the diverse public and private efforts in the fight against breast cancer, and in order to provide the best possible information concerning proper modes of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care for breast cancer to the people of New York, do hereby direct the Commissioner of Health to develop a statewide comprehensive plan for an early detection system for breast cancer.

To advise and assist the Commissioner of Health in the acquisition of relevant data and in the preparation and implementation of the statewide comprehensive plan, I hereby establish a Breast Cancer Advisory Committee, to consist of 16 members appointed by the Governor and to be comprised of recognized experts in the fields of medicine, health economics, education and public health for breast cancer control programs, as well as private individuals widely experienced in the fight against breast cancer.

The Committee shall solicit and interpret data from recognized breast cancer screening centers and other breast cancer authorities and shall advise the Commissioner of Health on the development, implementation and policy direction of the statewide comprehensive plan.

The Commissioner of Health shall be responsible for collecting and analyzing data, formulating standards and guidelines, conducting such studies as are advisable and organizing and coordinating the diverse private and public resource expenditures for the purpose of early detection. The plan he derives must identify a statewide early detection system which will be interrelated with the health system's treatment resources for appropriate follow-up and case management as well as for general educational purposes.

The Commissioner of Health is hereby directed to submit to the Governor a statewide comprehensive plan for the early detection and treatment of breast cancer. He is directed to make periodic progress reports on the development of this plan at three-month intervals from the date of this Order and to submit progress reports on implementation of the plan at six-month intervals from the date of its submission.