LIVESTRONG Presidential Cancer Forum

[Scott]

How many members do we have in Iowa, or close enough to travel there for the LIVESTRONG Presidential Cancer Forum?

The event will be held Monday, August 27 and Tuesday, August 28, from 10:00 a.m. to noon each day at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Democratic candidates on Monday and Republican candidates on Tuesday will discuss policies to address the number one killer of Americans under age 85.

[Fed]

As an addendum to this, Lance Armstrong will be playing Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC today, July 25 to discuss this Presidential Forum. I know Hardball is at 7 p.m. EST, but check your local listings if you want to see this.

[boyce]

Lance on Hardball

This one cracked me up completely!

I flipped to Harball to see Lance on there talking about the political debate, and asked my 7 year old, "Who's that?"

He says, "It's Lance Armstrong, and I know he's talking about cancer"

"How do you know that?", I ask

So he hits me with, "Duh Dad...It's Hardball,he is talking about your kind of cancer"

Classic

[Scott]

If you missed the LIVESTRONG Presidential Cancer Forum live, check out video and transcripts at this link!

[tlh]

cancer funding

Here is an article from this morning in my local paper. Now more than ever we need more reasearch money. It is such a pity that research is put on hold because of money when they are so close.




From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"Without more federal money, breakthroughs will lag as talented researchers quit or go elsewhere
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
By Dr. Ronald B. Herberman

It seems that every time I open the newspaper I see truly good news: headlines touting the latest advances in cancer research. Yet, behind the closed doors of the nation's laboratories and clinics, scientists are losing ground as federal funding for cancer research continues to decline.
Dr. Ronald B. Herberman is the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and a member of the American Association for Cancer Research (www.upci.upmc.edu).

Walking the halls of academia, I see cancer researchers spending less time discussing the future of research and more time struggling with obtaining needed funding for their research, and even questioning if and how they will survive as scientists.

Just four years ago, scientists were reaping the benefits of a robust National Institutes of Health budget that doubled from 1998 to 2003. With the promise of funding and the motivation to conquer cancer -- a disease diagnosed in more than 2 million Americans each year -- many young scientists eagerly entered this field of research.

But now the purse strings are drawn so tight that we're strangling. The proposed 2008 appropriations bill for labor, health and human services, and education fails to match inflation, let alone support new cancer research.

Researchers have hit a wall. As director of a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center at the University of Pittsburgh, it's unsettling to witness the impact.

Even very accomplished scientists who have shaped the direction of cancer discovery now are becoming increasingly disheartened. Dr. Shiyuan Cheng, a basic cancer researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, has spent more than five years trying to stop breast cancer before its deadly spread throughout the body. Just as Dr. Cheng located what he believed to be key molecules that mediate breast-cancer metastasis, his funding ran out. After several unsuccessful attempts to convince the NIH to fund his work, this important study has been placed indefinitely on hold.

Dr. Cheng is not alone. Rather than advancing research to improve chemotherapy, the scientists in the lab of UPCI pharmacologist Dr. Lin Zhang now spend more than half of their time writing grants to receive funding. Even when they're successful, grants fall substantially short of the lab's requests, making it nearly impossible to meet all of its research objectives. If this bleak pattern continues, Dr. Zhang is considering leaving the United States to conduct his research in China where the funding picture is brighter.

America, once the country of choice for training among the best and brightest foreign researchers, is on the brink of losing its competitive edge in cancer research. International scientists, realizing the dire funding situation in the United States, are relocating to countries more willing to properly fund cancer research. Another colleague, Dr. John Lazo, a professor of pharmacology at UPCI, lost two postdoctoral fellows in as many months. These bright young scientists left his lab to return to their home countries in search of adequate funding.

Junior researchers and graduate students, drawn to cancer research during the years of robust funding growth and rapid research advances, now face tough decisions about continuing in a field that's become a frustrating uphill funding battle. The opportunities to use their years of scientific training are dwindling, forcing young scientists at UPCI to trickle away from academia and start fresh with new careers.

Talented and innovative cancer scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and across America want nothing less than a cure for cancer. They've devoted lives and careers to the quest. But the funding crisis has replaced the spark of ingenuity with doubt and fear for the future.

We have come further than I could have imagined when I entered the field of cancer research more than 40 years ago. Today we are creating customized cancer treatments based on an individual's unique genetic makeup and developing vaccines that can train the immune system to fight cancer before it can take hold.

Now is not the time to abandon progress. Now is the time to increase federal funding for cancer research to ensure that these breakthroughs, and the promising minds behind them, do not go to waste.

The power to conquer cancer is within our reach, but Congress must provide us with the tools to continue to move forward, by increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. Failure to do so will prove devastating to the future of science, and to the quite realistic hopes for a future without cancer."

[Fed]

Junior researchers and graduate students, drawn to cancer research during the years of robust funding growth and rapid research advances, now face tough decisions about continuing in a field that's become a frustrating uphill funding battle. The opportunities to use their years of scientific training are dwindling, forcing young scientists at UPCI to trickle away from academia and start fresh with new careers.

Talented and innovative cancer scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and across America want nothing less than a cure for cancer. They've devoted lives and careers to the quest. But the funding crisis has replaced the spark of ingenuity with doubt and fear for the future.

Needless to say, things like these hit a nerve. I highlighted two key points in the quote from above. When I got my first, and only, Federal research grant from the NIH back in 2004, I had to resubmit my grant twice before making the cut. Nowadays, the score that awarded me funding back in '04 would not stand a chance. I submitted a new grant application in October of '06, and it didn't get funded. I resubmitted in July, and I will hear back around Halloween to see whether it is better received. Even if it were funded, the earliest I could start would be April, a good 18 months after my first submission. If it doesn't get funded, the next eligible resumbission date is March of '08 to begin -if funded- in January of '09.

This precarious funding climate has pushed me to search for alternative careers, namely in science policy. What I have found very frustrating is that I have invested 4 years of college, 5 of grad school, and 5+ of post-grad training only to find that I have a slim chance to find work in the field (and if I don't get this grant, the chance becomes close to zero). Academia can't afford to pick up the slack, because research programs for junior faculty require startup funds, and without outside funding sources, universities and research centers have to come up with the dollars to compensate for the funding drought.

I've raised hell on the Hill, and I met a Congressman last Saturday at an advocacy event in CT and gave him my pitch from the LIVESTRONG Presidential Forum. I, and I'm sure many others, are trying hard to get this issue to the forefront. It angers me, both as a scientist and a patient, that this priority is neglected.

Sorry for the rant, but articles like this one make me very upset at the prospect of having to leave the field in a few years not because cancer has been defeated, but rather because I will not have the means to carry the fight forward.

[CharlieFL]

Sorry for the rant, but articles like this one make me very upset at the prospect of having to leave the field in a few years not because cancer has been defeated, but rather because I will not have the means to carry the fight forward.

Fed, I realize you are preaching to the choir here, but YOU ARE SOOO RIGHT. It's a shame that gazillions can be spent on creating new video games or inventing cars that park themselves while a killer disease is sometimes being "let loose" due to lack of funding. But, as human beings that we are, the only way we learn is when things hit home. Can you imagine if one day all them congressmen woke up with a lump on one of their testicles? (or anywhere else for congresswomen?) You'd be sure that your job will be secure until you retire - Gosh, your little girl could take over for you and there'd still be money to spend until a cure is found! Anyway, just wanted to chime in.....I'm with you bro!

[Scott]

Sorry for the rant...

That isn't a rant, it's a personal statement. There's a key difference in attitude between the two. Keep it up!

[Fed]

That isn't a rant, it's a personal statement.

Point taken. No hablo Ingles!

[Karen]

tu hablas muy bien, Fedrico , keep it up (and yes, that is the extent of my Spanish except for a few swear words, and I used the familiar since we are family!)

[TCLEFT]

Needless to say, things like these hit a nerve. I highlighted two key points in the quote from above. When I got my first, and only, Federal research grant from the NIH back in 2004, I had to resubmit my grant twice before making the cut. Nowadays, the score that awarded me funding back in '04 would not stand a chance. I submitted a new grant application in October of '06, and it didn't get funded. I resubmitted in July, and I will hear back around Halloween to see whether it is better received. Even if it were funded, the earliest I could start would be April, a good 18 months after my first submission. If it doesn't get funded, the next eligible resumbission date is March of '08 to begin -if funded- in January of '09.

This precarious funding climate has pushed me to search for alternative careers, namely in science policy. What I have found very frustrating is that I have invested 4 years of college, 5 of grad school, and 5+ of post-grad training only to find that I have a slim chance to find work in the field (and if I don't get this grant, the chance becomes close to zero). Academia can't afford to pick up the slack, because research programs for junior faculty require startup funds, and without outside funding sources, universities and research centers have to come up with the dollars to compensate for the funding drought.

I've raised hell on the Hill, and I met a Congressman last Saturday at an advocacy event in CT and gave him my pitch from the LIVESTRONG Presidential Forum. I, and I'm sure many others, are trying hard to get this issue to the forefront. It angers me, both as a scientist and a patient, that this priority is neglected.

Sorry for the rant, but articles like this one make me very upset at the prospect of having to leave the field in a few years not because cancer has been defeated, but rather because I will not have the means to carry the fight forward.

Absolutely, the worst marriage ever is Business and Science. Politics is the In-law from Hell. Apparently everything does have a price. That's coming from someone who has worked for Pharma ~ 25 years. I have no answer for you Bro. I can only say this, there are those that still hear. There are those that still care. So there has to be hope left. We leave to this world our children. There has to be hope left. I've said it before, I'll never come close to what you do. I can only offer "much love" in thanks.
Much Love,
Mark