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House Approves Cancer Resolution

On September 19, the House approved, 403-0, a concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 210) supporting the goal of eliminating suffering and death due to cancer by the year 2015.

Sponsored by Rep. Clay Shaw (R-FL), the resolution contains a number of findings, including:

  • Cancer strikes one out of every two men and one out of every three women;
  • In 2005 alone, cancer will have claimed the lives of more than 570,000 Americans–1,500 per day–and is the cause of one of every four deaths in the United States;
  • The investment in cancer research and programs has led to real progress between 1991 and 2001. Cancer death rates declined by more than 9 percent, and about 258,000 lives were saved;
  • At least half of all cancer deaths could be prevented by applying existing knowledge; and
  • The director of the National Cancer Institute has set a goal to eliminate suffering and death due to cancer by 2015.Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) said, “For an increasing number of Americans, cancer is no longer a death sentence as it once was. Rather it is becoming a preventable, controllable, beatable disease.” He further urged that “we can and we must do much more than pay lip service to meeting the 2015 deadline. Let’s take this opportunity to come together and eradicate cancer by fully funding the National Cancer Institute, by supporting local centers, and by reauthorizing and funding the very programs that reach the men, women, and children who need them most and can least afford them.”

    Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) stated that while he supports the resolution, “[it] is mere talk and does not actually take action to fight cancer.” He emphasized that “instead of passing this resolution, we should, for example, increase funding for the National Institutes of Health’s cancer research, fund real stem cell research supported by the scientific community, fund the Department of Defense’s breast cancer research program, and probably most important, expand health coverage to the 46 million Americans that do not have it today.”