Is a Cancer-Free World Possible?

Our Scientific Advisory Board Chairman Weighs In

Here at BCRF, we have always recognized the need to allow our scientists the freedom and creativity to pursue promising research. It’s the principle we were founded on. But as federal funding for cancer research becomes increasingly scarce, it’s become even more important.

In a blog post for The American Society of Clinical Oncology, Chairman of BCRF’s Scientific Advisory Board Dr. Clifford Hudis laments the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its lack of investment in research. Although cancer now affects almost half of all Americans, enrollment in NIH-funded clinical trials is being slashed and grant applications are being rejected. And every time a researcher is turned down, another opportunity is lost for a breakthrough that could potentially affect millions of people.

Read Dr. Hudis’ thoughts on how limiting resources are slowing progress, and then let us know your take.

A World Free From the Fear of Cancer — Is It Possible?

This post originally appeared on CancerProgress.Net. Reprinted with permission from The American Society of Clinical Oncology.

By every definition, ASCO’s 50th Annual Meeting was a huge success. The halls were buzzing as nearly 35,000 attendees from the world’s cancer community shared excitement about cancer research progress.

Yet, as the good news was unveiled, I couldn’t help but wonder: what can we do to make sure that meetings like this happen again and again?

This was a banner year for federally funded cancer research trials – all four of the abstracts selected for ASCO’s plenary session were backed by funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as were so many of the other studies that captured news headlines.

But the U.S. clinical research system that brought us here is facing unprecedented challenges that could limit its ability to support the scope and scale of research we saw presented this year.

Today the purchasing power of the NIH is 23% lower than it was in 2003. And while valiant efforts have been made to stretch every dollar, we are beginning to see the real-world impact of plummeting funding.

Already, enrollment in NIH-funded cancer clinical trials has been slashed. In 2009, about 29,000 adult patients participated in these trials. But recently, the NCI announced plans to cut enrollment by 15% over the next few years, scaling yearly enrollment back to as low as 17,000 patients in intervention trials.

Continue reading at The ASCO Post.