Dr. Sandra Swain and other leaders urge Congress to commit to federal funding for cancer research

On April 8, 2013, then–ASCO President, Sandra M. Swain, MD, FACP, joined leaders of other medical research organizations at the Rally for Medical Research, organized by the American Association for Cancer Research, to call on Congress to renew its commitment to federal funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In addition to attending the event, Dr. Swain issued a statement discussing progress made against cancer and the need for research funding. “As a direct result of the federal investment in cancer research, we understand more about cancers than at any point in human history,” she said. “In order to continue this progress, the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute must have sustained and predictable increases in funding.”

Members of Congress and patient advocates also joined cancer researchers in urging the public to write or visit their elected representatives and to contact the media in their local communities to demonstrate how the sequestration cuts are hurting progress against life-threatening diseases and to make the case for increasing federal support for life-sustaining medical research.

“The 5% cut to the budget of the NIH under sequestration will have a devastating and long-lasting impact on advances in biomedical research and the next generation of investigators in the U.S.,” explained Dr. Swain. “When accounting for biomedical research inflation, these automatic budget cuts will have effectively reduced the NIH budget by 23% ($6 billion) since FY 2003—decreasing spending below FY 2001 levels.”

A recording of the event is available on YouTube. For more information, visit rallyformedicalresearch.org. Read Dr. Swain’s complete statement.

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Second Community Research Forum Slated for October 2013

In 2011, ASCO’s Cancer Research Committee implemented the Community Research Forum (CRF), an initiative designed to enable community-based investigators to develop collaborative solutions to promote participation in community-based research. The first in-person meeting, held in September 2012, included the presentation of a Workload Assessment Tool, developed by the CRF Workload Assessment Working Group, led by Marjorie J. Good, RN, MPH.

The tool was tested by a group of community-based oncology research programs to gather feedback on tool performance and to establish preliminary workload benchmarks. The findings on the Workload Assessment Tool will be presented at the October 4, 2013, meeting.

In addition, the CRF Quality Assessment Working Group, led by Thomas A. Marsland, MD, and Patricia Graham, MS, developed a manual to help community research programs create an internal quality assurance program. In advance of the October 2013 meeting, the working group will be collecting feedback on the manual.

To register for the October meeting, visit asco.org/meetings/community-research-forum.