While there are so many diaries asking for people to keep the Edwards family in their thoughts, I'd like to see some good come out of this. The ultimate good is that with the help of her doctor, Elizabeth Edwards' cancer can be controlled.
I think this is a good opportunity to make the case for increased funding to the National Institutes of Health in FY08.
The budget for the National Institutes of Health has been flat since fiscal 2003, which amounts to a 13 percent decline after accounting for inflation. Nationwide, grant amounts were cut by as much as 29 percent in 2006.
The proposed 2008 budget for NIH provides only a slight increase for the agency. On the basis of the 2007 funding levels passed by the House in joint resolution, NIH stands to grow by 0.8% in 2008 to $28.8 billion. This slow growth marks the fifth straight year that agency funding has not kept pace with biomedical inflation, which is estimated to be 3.7% for 2007.
The only NIH agency that requested an increase is the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID), due in large part to a $201 million increase to support the President's commitment to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria.
Funding for the National Cancer Institute is expected to decrease 0.2% from 2007 to 2008.
Boston Globe
It's dangerous to limit funds for basic research into new cancer therapies just as a tsunami of baby boomers in their cancer-prone years is about to hit, Harvard scientist Joan Brugge told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee yesterday....
"There's going to be a huge impact in terms of human suffering," she said in an interview. "It's taken a while to understand this complex disease, but now we have a blueprint for how to develop therapies. Now is not the time to retreat."...
The kind of research that translates into cancer treatments is expensive but necessary, Brugge said. Not only will it capitalize on past investments in research, but it will also meet the needs of the aging population most likely to develop cancer, she said.
Researchers are exuberant about advances based on a deeper molecular understanding of cancer, she said. They can design drugs for cancer patients based on a better understanding of specific defects in several types of tumors.
Their report, "Within Our Grasp -- or Slipping Away?" is available online.
Let's turn this news into an opportunity for action. As Brugge testified, "We cannot afford to stand still. The demographics are against us."