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President Launches Cancer Moonshot with Call for Significant Funding Increase
Statement of American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network President Chris Hansen
WASHINGTON – February 1, 2016 – President Obama today announced plans to launch the National Cancer Moonshot with a call for $1 billion in funding for specific cancer prevention and research initiatives intended to accelerate progress in FY16 and FY17.
Following is a statement from ACS CAN President Chris Hansen:
“Families affected by cancer applaud the president for working quickly to jumpstart the Moonshot initiative spearheaded by the Vice President Biden by calling for a substantial increase in funding that has the potential to change the course of this disease.
“The president builds on the boost in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the FY16 budget secured through bipartisan support, working to ensure we as a nation are maximizing opportunities to bring lab discoveries from the bench to the bedside this year.
“The proposal thoughtfully identifies important areas of potential, including developing new vaccines and early detection tests, applying an advanced understanding of the genetic makeup of cancer through precision medicine, discovering new therapies to combat pediatric cancer and creating a new cancer research fund that will allow for high-risk, high-return research grants that have previously gone unfunded because of constrained budgets.
“The president’s proposal is a clear illustration of his intention to make good on the promise to accelerate progress against cancer. The Moonshot provides hope to the more than 1.6 million Americans who will be diagnosed this year and the nearly 15 million cancer survivors in this country that we’re mustering the full resource of our nation to impact the cancer burden.”
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
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After months of delay and hard negotiations, Congress has finally passed a funding bill! The bill includes a small increase for cancer research and prevention programs.