As a two-time cancer survivor and practicing physician who has family members with breast cancer, I am dedicated to sound cancer research.
A recent ad in the Muskogee Phoenix encouraged me to support the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act (S. 757).
However, I oppose this bill because it is a misguided attempt by politicians in Washington, D.C., to micromanage cancer research at the National Institutes of Health and undermine NIH’s scientific and competitive peer review process.
The fact is, NIH already has the authority to study possible environmental causes of breast cancer and is conducting that research to the tune of $100 million per year.
It’s also important to note the $690 million NIH is spending every year on all forms of breast cancer research is almost twice as much as any other area of cancer research. Colon cancer, for example, claims 40 percent more lives every year than breast cancer, but we spend twice as much on breast cancer research.
I’d also like to add that as a former member of the House of Representatives, I helped double the NIH’s budget, which allowed the agency to direct far more resources to cancer research.
Everyone with cancer deserves research that can save the most lives with the best use of research dollars — whether it’s an adult with breast cancer or a 4-year-old with leukemia. When Congress picks winners and losers on the basis of politics, not science, all Americans suffer.
Unfortunately, the National Breast Cancer Coalition, which sponsored the Phoenix ad, rejected a compromise that would have encouraged, but not required, this research.
I will continue to fight any effort to sideline true scientists in the fight against cancer so politicians and special interest groups can take short-term credit for being tough on disease.
Reach Sen. Coburn at 172 Russell Senate Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20510, (202) 224-5754; or 1800 South Baltimore, Suite 800, Tulsa 74119, or phone: 581-7651, Fax: 581-7195.
