WASHINGTON, D.C. -- August 27, 2007 -- Presidential forums on cancer scheduled for today and tomorrow in Cedar Rapids, Iowa serve to elevate the importance of cancer on the national agenda and offer an opportunity for all presidential candidates to commit that they will make fighting cancer, the number one killer of Americans under age 85, a signature priority of their Administration.
"The fact that we have presidential candidates discussing their plans to combat cancer is an indication of how far we have come as a nation in addressing the cancer crisis," said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). "Deaths from cancer have declined for the second consecutive year in the United States, but 1.4 Americans will be newly diagnosed with cancer this year and 560,000 will lose their battle with the disease. The next President must enter office ready to rededicate our country to aggressively fighting the disease."
ACS CAN is advocating for health care policies that will help prevent cancer, detect it early and reduce suffering and death from the disease. ACS CAN is asking the presidential candidates to commit to making these issues a signature priority of any new Administration so as to save lives. Specifically, ACS CAN asks all presidential candidates to commit to the following:
* Substantially increasing the federal investment in medical research by doubling the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) over eight years. Congress and the Administration have frozen or cut funding for NIH and NCI in recent years, threatening recent progress in defeating cancer.
* Reducing the toll of tobacco, the number one cause of preventable death in this country and the world, by promising to push for and sign bipartisan legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration the broad authority to regulate the sale, advertising, manufacture and distribution of tobacco products. In addition, ACS CAN asks the presidential candidates to commit to raising the federal excise tax on tobacco products by at least $2.00 during their first term. Raising the tobacco tax is a scientifically proven way to decrease tobacco use and is strongly supported by ACS CAN.
* Fully funding by 2012 the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, which provides uninsured and underinsured women with free or low-cost mammograms and Pap tests. This program is funded at a level serving only one out of five eligible women nationwide. No woman should be denied screening due to lack of funding and the next president should commit to making this a reality.
* Supporting and signing legislation to create a similar CDC program -- the Colorectal Cancer Early Detection, Prevention and Treatment Program -- would give uninsured and underinsured Americans access to lifesaving screenings for colorectal cancer.
*ACS CAN calls on all presidential candidates to commit to providing access to every American for the full range of quality health care services needed to fight cancer, including prevention and early detection, treatment and end of life care.
"While Congress plays a critical role in making progress against cancer, it is the President who sets the agenda for our nation," said Daniel E. Smith, president of ACS CAN. "Without presidential leadership and a firm commitment from the next President to make cancer a signature issue of his or her administration immediately upon entering office, we believe we will jeopardize our progress against cancer and continue to lose lives needlessly to this disease. ACS CAN wants all of the presidential candidates to pledge to fund cancer research, support cancer prevention and early detection programs and enact the strongest possible tobacco control policies, all in the interest of saving lives."
ACS CAN is the nonprofit, nonpartisan sister advocacy organization of the American Cancer Society, which is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage lawmakers, candidates and government officials to support laws and policies that will make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer and will be working to make cancer a voting issue in the 2008 election. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
