WASHINGTON March 28, 2012 At an annual hearing on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget request today, National Cancer Institute (NCI) Director, Dr. Harold Varmus, testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor Health and Human Services that increased federal funding is critical to leverage past progress in the detection and treatment of cancer.
A statement from American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) President Christopher W. Hansen follows:
Thanks to federal investment in cancer research, we know far more today about treating cancer as a collection of more than 200 different diseases than we did 25 years ago. Advances in targeted treatments and therapies have led to improved survival rates alongside a better quality of life for many patients and survivors.
Past investment in cancer research and detection has led to tremendous strides in our ability to detect and treat a disease that will impact 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women in their lifetime. But we cannot rest on past progress, when 1500 people are still dying each day.
Thousands of investigators, working in labs in every state across the country, are engaged in research in the fight to end cancer.æ Only the federal government has the resources and ability to leverage and coordinate this work so that it reaches its full potential. Our ability as a country to reduce the scourge of cancer is dependent on the continued commitment by Congress to making the fight against cancer a national priority.
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
For More Information, Contact:
Alissa Crispino or Steven Weiss
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: 202-661-5772 or 202-661-5711
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
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