1990 - Walt Disney-ACS Research Professor Mary-Claire King, PhD, localizes the BRCA1 gene for inherited susceptibility to breast cancer to a specific site on chromosome 17.

1990 - ACS Clinical Research Professor Waun Ki Hong, MD, completes the first chemoprevention trial to show efficacy of vitamin A analogue against mouth and throat tumors.

1990 - CPS II data show decreased risk of colon cancer associated with a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Lead researcher is Michael Thun, MD.

1991 - ACS-funded researcher, Paul Fischer, MD, shows that young children recognize Joe Camel as easily as Mickey Mouse, demonstrating that the cartoon character reaches an audience well under the legal smoking age.

1991 - Data from CPS II demonstrate a decreased risk of colon cancer in people who take aspirin regularly. Lead researcher is Michael Thun, MD.

1991-93 - ACS Research Professor Bert Vogelstein, MD, and Richard Kolodner, PhD, clone several genes for inherited susceptibility to colon cancer.

1992 - Mammography Quality Standards Act passed by Congress.

1993 - Drop in smoking reported from 45% of the population in 1946 to 25%.

1994 - Exercise found to reduce risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women (Brian Henderson, MD).

1994 - A genetic screening test for a rare form of thyroid cancer is developed by Ruth Decker, MD. Children with the genetic defect who have their thyroid glands surgically removed before age two do not develop thyroid cancer.

1994 - Taxol (paclitaxel) is approved as second line therapy for advanced breast cancer, based on the work of ACS grantee David G. I. Kingston, PhD. Dr. Kingston's research also leads to the FDA approval of Taxotere (docetaxel) for breast cancer in 1996.

1995 - Data from CPS II indicate a decreased risk of colon cancer in postmenopausal women on estrogen replacement therapy (Eugenia Calle, PhD).

1995 - Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, shows that a Mediterranean diet rich in tomato sauce and olive oil helps prevent prostate cancer.

1995 - ACS launches Behavioral Research Center directed by Frank Baker, PhD.

1996 - ACS Guidelines on Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer affirm that one-third of all cancer deaths can be prevented through healthy eating and physical activity.

1996 - CPS II shows increase in lung cancer deaths among nonsmoking spouses of smokers.

1996 - CPS II data show secondhand smoke increases mortality from lung cancer and heart disease.

1996 - ACS Clinical Research Professor Waun Ki Hong, MD, initiates phase I trial of p53 gene therapy in lung cancer.

1996 - Camptostar (irinotecan) is approved for advanced colon cancer, based on earlier work of Michael Potmesil, PhD, who developed drugs that interfered with DNA unwinding enzyme, topoisomerase.

1996 - Larry Clark, MPH, PhD, reports that selenium reduces risk of lung, colon, and prostate cancer.

1997 - ACS Professor Thomas Cech, PhD, and ACS Research Professor Robert Weinberg, PhD, independently clone the gene for telomerase, an enzyme believed to be specific for cancer cells.

1997 - ACS dedicates the majority of its research dollars to beginning investigators.

1997 - Former ACS grantees Judah Folkman, MD, and Timothy Browder, MD, cure cancer in mice by blocking the blood supply of tumors with angiostatin and endostatin.

1997 - First overall downturn in cancer mortality is documented: overall cancer deaths fell 0.5% per year between 1990-1995.

1997 - FDA approves monoclonal antibody therapy (rituximab, Rituxan() for B-cell lymphoma, based on work of ACS Clinical Research Professor Ronald Levy, MD. 1998-Overall 5-year survival rates are improved to 58%.

1998 - First overall decrease in new cases of cancer; overall cancer incidence rates fell 0.7% per year between 1990-1995.

1998 - Bernard Fisher, MD, reports that tamoxifen reduces the incidence of breast cancer by 45% in high-risk women, the first successful chemoprevention of breast cancer.

1998 - Dennis Slamon, MD, shows that a genetically engineered, "humanized" monoclonal antibody, Herceptin(r) (trastuzumab), improves survival of women with advanced breast cancer; FDA grants approval.

1999 - V. Craig Jordan, PhD, reports that raloxifene reduces the risk of breast cancer by 76% in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

1999 - The ACS's targeted research area changes to cancer in the poor and underserved.

1999 - ACS Research Professor Robert A. Weinberg, PhD, announces that he has been able to turn a normal human cell into a cancer cell with three defined genetic elements: an oncogene, inactivation of two suppressor genes, and the gene for telomerase.

1999 - Cancer incidence and mortality rates continue to decline.