Maintaining Government Funding for Cancer Research is Essential

By Mark Evers, MD, UK Markey Cancer Center Director

As lawmakers determine fiscal priorities for 2012 and beyond, it is essential for them to preserve funding for cancer and biomedical research. These are challenging times, but such work is a key investment that will pay off in lives saved, improvements in public health, continued innovation, and economic growth.

Cancer touches us all, either through a personal diagnosis or indirectly through the diagnoses of others. More than 1,500 Americans die from cancer every single day. Kentucky has one of the highest rates of cancer in the country, including the nation's highest rate of lung cancer and second-highest rate of colon cancer.

Our country’s cancer research enterprise includes laboratory scientists, physician-scientists, clinicians, cancer survivors, patient advocates, research institutions, government agencies—particularly the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. They are responsible for scientific breakthroughs that are benefiting cancer patients everywhere, including many here at the Markey Cancer Center.

According to the recently released American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Cancer Progress Report 2011, there has been significant advancement against cancer, reaching back 40 years when the National Cancer Act was signed into law:

• Nationally, from 1990 to 2007, death rates from all cancers combined dropped 22 percent for men and 14 percent for women.
• Breast cancer deaths fell about 28 percent from 1990 to 2006
• Deaths from cervical cancer have dropped nearly 31 percent. 
• Colorectal cancer deaths have fallen 28 percent in women and 33 percent in men.
• Prostate cancer deaths have fallen 39 percent.
• Stomach cancer deaths have fallen 34 percent in women and 43 percent in men.

Markey patients have shown similar successes, and we attribute much of it to the research being performed here in Lexington. Data shows that Markey patients have significantly better five-year survival rates than those Kentucky cancer patients who were treated elsewhere for brain, breast, liver, lung, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancer, as well as for stage IV colorectal cancer.

In addition, Markey patients with brain, lung, liver, ovarian and stage IV colorectal cancers show higher five-year survival rates than patients treated elsewhere nationwide when compared to the NCI's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program.

Our researchers currently have 95 therapeutic trials open to accrual, and 83 of those receive federal funding from agencies such as the NCI and NIH. Nationally, these agencies support the work of more than 325,000 researchers and personnel.

With Markey applying for an NCI designation next year, the NCI's continued funding is more important than ever for Kentuckians. Centers that earn the designation receive additional  annual funding as well as access to the latest in national clinical trials.

Our nation’s policymakers should stand up for the medical science supported by NCI and NIH and preserve funding for these institutions. For the sake of the thousands of Kentuckians who will be diagnosed with cancer and those struggling now with this devastating disease, this investment in cancer and biomedical research will provide them with hope for a much brighter future.