Cancer, because of the increase in incidence, and because of the major programs of education, fundraising, and government support, has become a matter of great public interest and concern. As a result, many questions are being asked, and with increasing urgency. How serious is the cancer problem, the public wants to know. What is being done about it? What progress has been made? First and foremost, cancer is a medical problem. Hence an understanding of medical advances, and the explanation of these advances to laymen, are important, unavoidable responsibilities of the nurse. She is the person so often consulted by the citizen, well or ill, who seeks information, in terms intelligible to him, on matters of health, so mysterious and so fascinating. Whether in the doctor's office, in public health, in the school, at the bedside, or in her general social relationships, the nurse is expected to know and, even more important, to share her knowledge. At the present rate, cancer by the most reliable calculations will affect one in four individuals now livinga statement often made but always well-worth repetition. Some few years ago, this figure was only one in every eight. The change simply means that the occurrence and total deaths from cancer are both increasing steadily. In this country, this year, 300,000 persons will develop the disease; 200,000 will die from it. Although there have been improvements in cancer treatment, and a rise in cure rates for some forms, the increasing occurrence of the disease, particularly of relatively incurable forms, such as of the lung, has resulted in an over-all rise in cancer death. Despite the extent and massive nature of our present effort to fight the disease, we are still losing the war against cancer. Because of cancer's real toll of human lives and its unimaginable and unknown toll in human suffering, a further effort is not only justified but mandatory.