By Elizabeth Mendes at the American Cancer Society
March 12, 2015
Although there has been significant progress in improving treatments and outcomes for children with cancer, there is much more that needs to be done. This was the overarching takeaway from a 2-day Institute of Medicine workshop, convened by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Policy Forum in Washington D.C. March 9 and 10.
Experts from major universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and the government, along with patient advocates, came together to discuss the challenges children with cancer and their families face as well as strategies for addressing them. Through presentations and question and answer sessions, the group covered topics including quality of life issues, research gaps, workforce training needs, and public policy implications.
We need to do better, said American Cancer Society Chief Medical Officer Dr. Otis Brawley in his concluding remarks. Brawley said that the American Cancer Society can help by working to make these problems known and make people realize these are real problems.
The next steps are how do we prioritize and disseminate what we know and how do we continue refining based on novel work, said workshop chair, Dr. Joanne Wolfe, chief of the Division of Pediatric Palliative Care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. These questions are important for us to answer as a community, Wolfe noted.
The workshop will result in a summary report, which will be published in September 2015. In speaking to those in attendance, Wolfe called on participants to contribute as well: I encourage everyone to lend their voice to this conversation and write perspectives about what you take away from this workshop, share your ideas vastly and en masse so we can continue to promote this agenda.
After months of delay and hard negotiations, Congress has finally passed a funding bill! The bill includes a small increase for cancer research and prevention programs.