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Cancer has affected most of us in some way. We have either had it ourselves or have known loved ones or close friends who have experienced one of its many forms. We have seen the suffering cancer causes. We have heard the cries for help from those who have it. Too often, we have watched helplessly as they have lost hope and succumbed to this dreaded disease.
There is good news to report. According to the National Cancer Institute's Annual Report to the Nation on Cancer, Americans are less likely to get, and subsequently die, from cancer than we once were. Overall cancer rates have declined over the past decade, while overall survival rates have risen. Death rates from all cancers combined have been decreasing for more than a decade. These rates have dropped for 11 of the top 15 cancers in men, and eight of the top 15 cancers in women.
I am pleased that Congress has played an important role in national cancer-fighting efforts. While serving as the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, I helped lead the charge to double federal funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the cutting-edge research conducted by its National Cancer Institute. My Committee helped renew numerous cancer research programs. We also helped write a law to ensure safe and accurate mammograms for women and to establish a grant program to help cancer patients coordinate their health services and obtain the best possible medical care.
I also helped add important preventative benefits, such as screenings for breast, cervical, colon, and prostate cancer, to the Medicare program. I also have introduced legislation (H.R. 370) to allow individuals to designate that part or all of their federal income tax refunds be used for biomedical research at NIH.
More needs to be done, however. The progress we have made over the past several decades should not breed complacency about our future prospects for minimizing and ending the terrible toll cancer extracts on its patients and their families, friends, and caregivers. I am optimistic that, as the newly-appointed Vice Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I will be able to further encourage the development of safe and efficacious drugs, medical devices, and biomedical research that hold the potential to one day end cancer as we know it.
I am confident that the continued collaboration between and among the federal government, private sector, patients, and medical and scientific communities will continue to yield remarkable progress in our efforts to rid the pain and suffering cancer causes. This continued collaboration will provide some measure of hope and strength to those currently fighting for their lives against this determined but beatable disease.
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