Richard Nixon may be better remembered for the Watergate scandal, but 35 years after he was forced out of the White House, the world is benefiting from a more positive, if over-ambitious, aspect of his presidency: the “war on cancer”.

In the nearly 40 years since his 1971 pledge “to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer” – backed by $100m in research funds – the battle has certainly not been won, let alone completed in time for the 1976 bicentennial of US independence, as the optimists had initially hoped.