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Guest Editorial
Progress Toward a Goal
Fifteen hundred - that is the number of people expected to die each day this year from cancer. In the United States, men have a 1 in 3 lifetime risk of developing cancer; for women, the risk is 1 in three. It is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells that touches each of our lives in one way or another. The good news is scientists and doctors are winning the fight against cancer. Today, 10.5 million Americans with a history of cancer are alive, thanks to new research and treatments.
Two weeks ago I voted with my colleagues in the House of Representatives to support the largest increase in funding to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in three years. The Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill provides $4.87 billion for NCI, a $72.7 million increase above current levels.
The American Cancer Society has an aggressive goal to eliminate all suffering and death due to cancer by the year 2015. This goal should be America's goal, but the only way to reach that goal is to provide the funding that can help us understand the causes, accelerate prevention, improve early detection, develop effective treatments and improve the quality of care for those with cancer. Under the current administration we have seen $250 million in proposed cuts to the NCI. The actions taken by Congress last month make reaching this goal a priority again.
Investment in the NCI not only makes sense in terms of the priceless protection of human lives, it makes sense in terms of what it costs us as a nation financially. The National Institutes of Health estimate overall costs of cancer in 2006 at $206.3 billion: $78.2 billion for all medical expenditures; $17.9 billion for the cost of lost productivity due to illness; and $110.2 billion for the cost of lost productivity due to premature death.
The funding approved for the National Cancer Institute is positive progress toward the 2015 goal. More than 1.4 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2007. As a nation we can't afford not to invest in this critical matter of life and death.
Brian Higgins, Congressman
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