Cancer Research Funding in Jeopardy
House and Senate appropriators have proposed increasing other programs at the expense of funding for cancer research and the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute. In its first round of activity, the House appropriations committee proposed to provide a scant 1.9 percent increase in the NIH budget. Senate appropriators improved on the House figure, but only were able to secure a 2.8 percent increase for NIH — still less than half of the $1.9 billion increase in funding, being sought by ASTRO and other cancer research advocates, needed to get cancer research funding back on track with medical inflation. ASTRO is urging its members to educate Congress on the consequences of failing to adequately invest in cancer research. Click here for more information.
NCI Launches New Pilot Program
The National Cancer Institute announced the launch of its Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) — a three-year pilot program designed ”to bring the latest scientific advances and the highest level of innovative and integrated, multi-specialty care to a larger population of cancer patients.” The program seeks to increase participation in clinical trials, reduce cancer-care disparities and improve information sharing through the multi-disciplinary collaboration of medical professionals with ties to NCI’s research and cancer center network. The pilot sites, which are community hospital-based cancer centers offering medical, surgical, and radiation oncology care, will share best practices and refine the overall NCCCP concept prior to broader implementation. NCCCP hopes that a community-based platform and expanded information network will lead to more rapid translation of newly discovered biomarkers and molecularly targeted therapies and speed the development of new cancer drugs. For more information, click here.