Sen. Hutchison Emerges As Leader In Cancer War
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has emerged as a leader in a commendable bipartisan effort to reinvigorate the War on Cancer, declared by President Richard Nixon in 1971.
“In 2008, it is projected that 1.43 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer,” Sen. Hutchison says. “Nearly 96,000 Texans will receive this sobering news. And 35,000 Texas patients will lose their battle against cancer this year.”
Progress has been made since 1971 and the passage of the National Cancer Act.
“We have amassed a wealth of knowledge on the disease,” Sen. Hutchison says. “Some of the greatest strides have been made in prevention and early detection, with a heavy emphasis on screening, including mammographies and colonoscopies. Behavior modification, like smoking cessation, better eating habits, regular exercise, and sunscreen use, have helped prevent cancer.”
But progress in prevention hasn’t always “translated into meaningful progress for those with cancer,” she adds.
“In the 37 years since the War on Cancer was declared, the cancer mortality rate has decreased only 6 percent,” Sen. Hutchison says. “By comparison, since 1970, age-adjusted mortality rates have sharply declined for heart disease (by 56 percent) and stroke (by 66 percent). Today, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, surpassed only by heart disease.”
The National Cancer Institute forecasts that within the next decade, cancer will take the No. 1 spot. One in every two men and one in every three women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes.
To improve those numbers, Sen. Hutchison says, we must “remove barriers that obstruct our progress in cancer research and treatment.”
“First, we must improve access to early detection measures and cancer care,” she says. “Lack of health insurance and other impediments to health care providers can prevent many Americans from undergoing routine screening for some of the deadliest forms of cancer. With early screening, the chances of catching the disease at a treatable stage are greater, and improve the rate of survival. We must focus on decreasing the number of uninsured and providing screening to underserved populations.”
Patients need to know more about clinical trials, she adds.
“Clinical trials expand treatment options and also serve as a critical resource for the discovery of new prevention, diagnostic and treatment methods for researchers,” Sen. Hutchison says. “Yet less than 5 percent of the 10.1 million adults with cancer in the United States participate in clinical trials. Disincentives to enrolling in clinical trials in the health insurance market must be eliminated.”
She says the nation must “re-evaluate how much we are willing to invest to eradicate this disease.”
“As seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong told me at a recent Senate hearing, ‘cancer is ruthless and relentless, and to win, we also must be ruthless and relentless,’” she says.
Sen. Hutchison has worked to double cancer funding to the National Institutes of Health from $13.6 billion in 1998 to nearly $30 billion in 2008.
“But this is only a drop in the bucket when compared to the economic impact of the disease,” she says. “In 2007, the overall cost of cancer to our nation was $219.2 billion.”
But her call for funding doesn’t mean raising taxes.
“We must prioritize spending, and also explore non-governmental fundraising options,” she says. “For example the Breast Cancer Research Stamp, which I worked hard to move through the Senate, has generated $56 million for breast cancer research, all through volunteer contributions.”
The War on Cancer should be waged on a much broader scale, and Sen. Hutchison’s policy initiatives are the right strategy.
