Senate Resolution 87

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2007 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Late in session last night, the U.S. Senate unanimously reconfirmed its commitment to making lung cancer research a national public health priority.

Laurie Fenton-Ambrose, president of the Lung Cancer Alliance, thanked Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) for their leadership on the resolution which reinforces the one they shepherded through the Senate last year.

“This year they were joined as co-sponsors by Senator Diane Feinstein (D- CA) and Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), who are both co-chairs of the Senate Cancer Caucus, and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

“We are deeply grateful to all of them for getting this resolution passed and for their strong support of the goals of the Lung Cancer Alliance to reverse decades of stigma, neglect and under funding of lung cancer research,” said Fenton-Ambrose.

The resolution calls on President Bush to declare lung cancer a public health priority and to order health agencies to develop a comprehensive, coordinated program to cut lung cancer mortality in half by 2015.

Specifically cited as areas for action include increased funding for translational research and specialized lung cancer research centers, more action on early detection, expedited development of chemoprevention and targeted drug therapies for lung cancer and screening pilot programs under Medicare.

Last year, during the previous Congress, a similar resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives but failed to pass.

A companion House resolution was introduced on April 24, 2007 by Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA), Congressman Ed Whitfield (D-KY) and Congresswoman Donna M. Christensen (D-VI).

They have been joined as co-sponsors by Congressman Virgil H. Goode Jr., Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), Congressman Michael R. McNulty (D-NY), Congressman James P. Moran (D-VA). Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH), Congresswoman Betty Sutton (D-OH) and Congresswoman Lynn C. Woolsey (D-CA).

“We are hopeful that the House will act soon,” said Fenton-Ambrose. “Slowly but surely we are building a strong coalition of House and Senate members who are deeply committed to making lung cancer research, early detection and mortality reduction a national priority.”

“It’s been long overdue,” she said, “but we are getting there.”

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should declare lung cancer a public health priority and should implement a comprehensive interagency program to reduce the lung cancer mortality rate by at least 50 percent by 2015.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 27, 2007
Mr. HAGEL (for himself, Mrs. CLINTON, Mr. BROWNBACK, and Mrs. FEINSTEIN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should declare lung cancer a public health priority and should implement a comprehensive interagency program to reduce the lung cancer mortality rate by at least 50 percent by 2015.Whereas lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women, accounting for 28 percent of all cancer deaths;Whereas lung cancer kills more people annually than breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, melanoma, and kidney cancer combined;

Whereas, since the National Cancer Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-218; 85 Stat. 778), coordinated and comprehensive research has raised the 5-year survival rates for breast cancer to 88 percent, for prostate cancer to 99 percent, and for colon cancer to 64 percent;

Whereas the 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is still only 15 percent and a similar coordinated and comprehensive research effort is required to achieve increases in lung cancer survivability rates;

Whereas 60 percent of lung cancer cases are now diagnosed in nonsmokers or former smokers;

Whereas 2/3 of nonsmokers diagnosed with lung cancer are women;

Whereas certain minority populations, such as Black males, have disproportionately high rates of lung cancer incidence and mortality, notwithstanding their lower smoking rate;

Whereas members of the baby boomer generation are entering their sixties, the most common age at which people develop cancer;

Whereas tobacco addiction and exposure to other lung cancer carcinogens such as Agent Orange and other herbicides and battlefield emissions are serious problems among military personnel and war veterans;

Whereas the August 2001 Report of the Lung Cancer Progress Review Group of the National Cancer Institute stated that funding for lung cancer research was `far below the levels characterized for other common malignancies and far out of proportion to its massive health impact’;

Whereas the Report of the Lung Cancer Progress Review Group identified as its `highest priority’ the creation of integrated, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research consortia organized around the problem of lung cancer rather than around specific research disciplines; and

Whereas the United States must enhance its response to the issues raised in the Report of the Lung Cancer Progress Review Group: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the President should–
    (1) declare lung cancer a public health priority and immediately lead a coordinated effort to reduce the lung cancer mortality rate by 50 percent by 2015;(2) direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to increase funding for lung cancer research and other lung cancer-related programs as part of a coordinated strategy with defined goals, including–
    (A) translational research and specialized lung cancer research centers;(B) expansion of existing multi-institutional, population-based screening programs incorporating state-of-the-art image processing, centralized review, clinical management, and tobacco cessation protocols;(C) research on disparities in lung cancer incidence and mortality rates;

    (D) graduate medical education programs in thoracic medicine and cardiothoracic surgery;

    (E) new programs within the Food and Drug Administration to expedite the development of chemoprevention and targeted therapies for lung cancer;

    (F) annual reviews by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality of lung cancer screening and treatment protocols;

    (G) the appointment of a lung cancer director within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with authority to improve lung cancer surveillance and screening programs; and

    (H) lung cancer screening demonstration programs under the direction of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services;

(3) direct the Secretary of Defense, in conjunction with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to develop a broad-based lung cancer screening and disease management program among members of the Armed Forces and veterans, and to develop technologically advanced diagnostic programs for the early detection of lung cancer;

(4) appoint a Lung Cancer Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee, comprised of medical, scientific, pharmaceutical, and patient advocacy representatives, to–

    (A) work with the National Lung Cancer Public Health Policy Board described in paragraph (5); and(B) report to the President and Congress on the progress toward and the obstacles to achieving the goal described in paragraph (1) of reducing the lung cancer mortality rate by 50 percent by 2015; and

(5) convene a National Lung Cancer Public Health Policy Board, comprised of multiagency and multidepartment representatives and at least 3 members of the Lung Cancer Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee, to oversee and coordinate all efforts to accomplish the goal described in paragraph (1) of reducing the lung cancer mortality rate by 50 percent by 2015.

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