Getting Closer to Controlling Cancer Requires Funding More Laboratories and
Commitment Beyond Two Years of New Stimulus, Weiner and Berg Assert in Denver
Post Oped
WASHINGTON and DENVER, April 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Getting closer to
controlling cancer" requires funding more laboratories and a commitment beyond
the two years of the new federal stimulus, say former White House Drug Policy
spokesman Robert Weiner and a George Washington University Medical Center
breast cancer laboratory director, Dr. Patricia Berg, in an oped in today's
Denver Post.
Weiner, Berg, and former government analyst Paulette Garthoff, who has a
family member who is a breast cancer survivor, point out that "cancer still
killed 565,000 Americans last year. Although the death rate has declined two
percent a year since 1999, 1,500 Americans a day still die from the disease --
cancer is the nation's number-two killer behind heart disease."
Weiner and Berg assert, "The federal stimulus legislation signed by President
Obama is creating a sense of excitement for the 17,000 scientists attending
the American Association for Cancer Research 100th annual meeting under way in
Denver, but only a small portion of the new $1.2 billion -- $100-200 million
-- goes to innovative research by small laboratories for 'challenge' grants.
That is where the excitement begins to unravel a bit because less than 10
percent of grant applications for small laboratories making novel discoveries
are expected to be approved."
"In addition, Stimulus money provides a useful two-year increase -- and NIH
insiders are concerned about what happens after that. Research must not end
in two years."
According to Weiner and Berg, "From discovering genes activated in breast and
prostate cancer, to finding drugs to suppress cancers, to creating new
diagnostic tools to locate and prevent the spread of the disease, the basic
scientist's mission is a major part of the progress that has reduced cancer
mortality rates significantly between 1990 and 2004, avoiding more than a half
million deaths."
The authors say that the word "cancer" is misunderstood -- it encompasses more
than 200 diseases according to Dr. Margaret Foti, AACR's CEO, interviewed by
Weiner and Berg. Dr. Foti says that "institutions all over the country are
having emergency meetings" on how to apply for a share of the stimulus money
and "maximize the opportunity" this moment creates. Breakthroughs for one
will pay off for others. For example, she says that researchers are poised
"to extrapolate breast and ovarian cancer findings to other cancers." Dr. Foti
asserts that funds are needed to "keep the lab research engine going, ensure
new drugs to get into the clinical-trials pipeline, and support the
development of molecular therapies."
Weiner and Berg argue, "There is no substitute for the Federal research
catalyst." They point to data compiled by Mark Hurlbert, the Avon Foundation's
senior adviser for grants and partnerships, who has noted that for breast
cancer alone, $600 million annually has come from NCI before the Stimulus and
the Department of Defense has provided $2.2 billion total since 1992, versus
$900 from Komen million since 1988, Avon$520 million since 1992, and Revlon
$110 million since 1992.
The authors conclude, "President Obama has declared April 'Cancer Control
Month.' With the proper mix of funding for institutions large and small and
with a commitment to multi-year research, we will be closer to controlling
cancer."
For original article go to www.denverpost.com
Contact: Bob Weiner, or Rebecca Vander Linde, +1-202-329-1700, +1-202-306-1200
SOURCE Robert Weiner Associates
Bob Weiner, +1-202-329-1700, or Rebecca Vander Linde, +1-202-306-1200
