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Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Legislative Priorities for 2011

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network calls on the 112th Congress to help us make progress against the fourth leading cancer killer by:

1. Enacting and fully funding the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act(S. 362/H.R. 733). Click here to read more.

2. Ensuring that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has sufficient funding to allow for progress in diseases like pancreatic cancer by supporting continued growth in the NCI budget for FY2012. Click here to read more.

1. Enacting and fully funding the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act (S. 362/H.R. 733).

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers. 94% of patients will die within five years of diagnosis - only 6% survive more than five years and 74% of pancreatic cancer patients die within the first year of diagnosis. These statistics have changed little in the last 40 years.

This disease is also severely under-researched and under-funded. Unlike many cancers, there are no early detection tools or effective treatments for pancreatic cancer. Part of the problem is that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) allocates approximately 2% of its $5 billion budget for pancreatic cancer research, and according to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's new report "Pancreatic Cancer: A trickle of federal funding for a river of need. Why survival rates for pancreatic cancer have remained in the single digits for 40 years," pancreatic cancer is behind in nearly every important grant mechanism funded by the NCI.

Recognizing that the time has come to make true progress on this deadly disease, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network has worked with Congress to develop the first-ever substantive legislation that will lead to the creation of a federally supported strategic plan and increased resources for pancreatic cancer research.

The legislation, called the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act, is based on the National Plan to Advance Pancreatic Cancer Research, a report developed by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's Scientific Advisory Board. The bill was introduced in the 112th Congress on February 16th, 2011 by U.S. Representatives Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Leonard Lance (R-NJ) as H.R. 733. The Senate companion bill, S. 362, was introduced by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) on the same day. We are currently working on building support for the bills by encouraging other U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators to become co-sponsors.

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Additional Resources on the Pancreatic Cancer Research & Education Act:

• List of current Senate co-sponsors
• List of current House co-sponsors
• Fact sheet about the bill
• Additional fact sheets on pancreatic cancer
• Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's press release on the bill reintroduction
• Pancreatic Cancer Advocacy Day 2011 Ad Campaign

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2. Ensuring that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has sufficient funding to allow for progress in diseases like pancreatic cancer by supporting continued growth in the NCI budget for FY2012.

The federal government is by far the primary funder of cancer research. Thanks to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's efforts, federal funding for pancreatic cancer research through the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has dramatically increased in the last decade, yet it is still far below the levels needed to make true progress. Unfortunately, the fact is that when adjusted for inflation, the NCI's budget has decreased by more than 15% since Fiscal Year 2003. We not only need more money for the NCI but need to ensure that more of the NCI's funding is focused on pancreatic cancer research, which currently receives only approximately 2% of the NCI's $5 billion budget. The current funding levels are simply not sufficient to make true progress against the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death.

To accomplish this, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network educates Members of Congress about pancreatic cancer and the specific challenges our research community faces. We also join our partners in One Voice Against Cancer (OVAC), a coalition of more than 40 cancer-related organizations interested in increasing federal funding for cancer research, to call for specific funding levels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NCI. Funding NIH and NCI not only leads to a better understanding of cancer prevention and treatment, funding research also plays a significant role in job creation.

• More than 80% of the NIH budget is awarded to scientists in communities across the country, away from the NIH campus. These grants and contracts directly support research-related jobs and equipment purchases, along with clinical trials. In fact, in FY 2009 NIH "funded more than 37,000 principal investigators on research grants, with many thousands more personnel supported by the projects."¹
  
  
• In fiscal year 2007, every dollar invested in NIH gave more than $2 to the states: "…an overall investment of $22.846 billion from NIH generated a total of $50.537 billion in new state business activity in the form of increased output of goods and services."²

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