Friends of Cancer Research Newsletter

NIH Funding Update

Senate and House Begin Work on FY 2007 Budget Resolutions—Community Mounts Advocacy Initiatives to Promote Research Funding

With the Senate and House Budget Committees beginning consideration of their fiscal year (FY) 2007 budget resolutions this week, the medical research advocacy community has been working with the broader public health community to generate support for a budget amendment. Right now, efforts are focused on the Senate, where a planned amendment will add funds to the overall discretionary spending part of the Senate Budget Resolution. An increase in the total FY 2007 discretionary spending level is necessary in order to boost the funds available for the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Bill, which includes funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other health programs.

The Senate Budget amendment is a reaction to the President’s FY 2007 Budget proposal that recommended cuts in many domestic discretionary programs in health care. For NIH, the President’s plan calls for $28.59 billion, the same funding level as FY 2006. With NIH projecting medical inflation to increase by 3.8 percent for FY 2007, the President’s budget proposal amounts to a real cut in biomedical research funding at NIH. Moreover, within NIH, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is slated to receive $4.75 billion—a $40 million cut over the Institute’s FY 2006 funding level. Every entity within NIH receives a cut or level funding from FY 2006 under the President’s plan except for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the NIH Director’s Office.

The Congressional Budget Office is estimating that under the President’s Budget proposal, the Labor-HHS Bill would need between $4 and $7 billion more in funding just to reach last year’s level. At this point, it appears that the Senate Budget amendment will try to bring the Labor-HHS Bill back to FY 2005 funding levels. The important point to note is that the Budget amendment needs to raise the Budget Resolution’s total number for discretionary spending in order to have any affect on FY 2007 Labor-HHS funding levels, which will be determined later this year.

For FY 2007, the Friends of Cancer Research (FOCR) is supporting a 5% increase over FY 2006 for NIH. An increase at this level is considered minimally necessary to maintain research progress and momentum. The medical research community has coalesced around the 5 percent NIH increase, and has been working hard to advocate for a greater funding level for the health budget line in the House and Senate Budget Resolutions. An increase in the total discretionary dollars available in the Congressional budget resolutions makes it more likely that the NIH could receive level funding or a slight increase in FY 2007.

If you have questions, or need more information, please contact FOCR Director of Government Affairs Jeff Coughlin at (202) 944-6643 or jcoughlin@focr.org.

Second only to lung cancer in terms of mortality rates, colorectal cancer is referred to as the “silent killer” because its symptoms are often mistaken for other more common and routine illnesses. Only recently, with what has been dubbed "the Katie Couric Effect" has colon cancer received the national attention it deserves. Friends spoke with one of the nationally acclaimed scientists and leading figures in the field of colorectal research, Dr. Raymond DuBois. Dr. DuBois is Director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and also serves on the Board of Scientific Advisors to the Director of the National Cancer Institute and the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (an initiative of Katie Couric, Lily Tartikoff and the Entertainment Industry Foundation.) Dr. DuBois discusses his groundbreaking research and the policy barriers he sees to realizing its full potential. [Read this month's In The Spotlight]

FRIENDS UPDATE

Friends and AACR to Host Congressional Staff Briefing on April 5th

Friends of Cancer Research and the American Association for Cancer Research have partnered to host an upcoming scientific symposium on Capitol Hill. Moderated by Susan Dentzer of the PBS NewsHour, the April 5th event will feature an interactive panel discussion about opportunities for and barriers to the advancement of scientific discovery in the fields of cancer prevention and early detection. The dialogue will help foster recommendations and ideas for eliminating and reducing these barriers.

The panelists include:

Dr. Anna Barker, Deputy Director, NCI
Dr. William Nelson, Assoc. Dir., Translational Research, The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
Dr. Gary Gordon, Divisional Vice President, Global Oncology Development, Abbott Laboratories
Dr. Amy Muhlberg, Prof. Staff, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

SCIENCE CORNER:

Genomic Initiatives at the National Cancer Institute

When the National Cancer Act was created twenty five years ago, we did not fully realize the genetic component of cancer. Now, through initiatives like the Human Genome Project, we know that normal cells become cancerous due to an accumulation of genetic changes that result in uncontrolled cell growth. Examining changes at the cellular and molecular level, then, is essential for preventing and treating the disease. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been focused on advancing this area of cancer research for a number of years, and the knowledge gained from the Human Genome Project has paved the way for a number of subsequent projects that are providing cutting edge technology and information -- projects that have the potential to reshape the current understanding of cancer.

Recently, the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project (CGAP) was established by the NCI as a new approach in the fight against cancer. This interdisciplinary program, involving the NCI, academic centers, and private companies, sets out to create an informational database and develop new technologies that are accessible to scientists around the world. The database will enable complete biological and genetic profiles of different types of cancer, while the new technology developed will aid researchers in understanding and combating the disease. The CGAP is designed to obtain gene profiles of cells at various stages of tumor development ranging from normal to pre-cancerous to advanced stage cancer. These profiles are a complete genetic map of such cells. By comparing differences in the profiles, researchers will be able to identify specific genes that are involved in cancer initiation and progression.

In the short time since the CGAP was initiated, it has provided scientists worldwide with an unprecedented amount of information. Already, researchers are able to identify critical genes for further study due to their role in cancerous growth. By obtaining these genetic maps, scientists will be able to identify new targets for drug development to modulate the abnormalities associated with cancerous growth. Furthermore, the ability to better characterize cancer cases at the individual patient level will allow physicians to determine optimal treatments.

The technologies that are being developed and improved by the CGAP provide a foundation for more genomic based projects. Even more recently, the NCI announced the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility (CGEMS) project. This three-year initiative will use genotyping to further identify inherited mutations that lead to increased risk of development of breast and prostate cancers. Additionally, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) pilot project aims to further accelerate the understanding of cancer at a molecular level. This initiative will focus on identifying and locating key genomic mutations that result in cancerous growth. Both of these recent initiatives have been built upon the information obtained from the Human Genome Project and CGAP.

Because the projects are focused on uncovering genetic changes associated with cancer formation as well as progression, new markers for the early detection of disease may be discovered. This information allows treatment to begin before the disease reaches a critical stage. Additionally, understanding genetic changes associated with cancer development may allow researchers to develop methods of stopping these alterations from initially occurring. Discovering methods that would stop alterations from occurring would subsequently reduce risk and elevate cancer prevention to a whole new level.

If you are interested in more information on this topic, please visit:

The Cancer Genome Anatomy Project: http://cgap.nci.nih.gov/

The Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility:

http://cgems.cancer.gov/index.asp

The Cancer Genome Atlas: http://cancergenome.nih.gov/index.asp

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