September 30, 2003

The Honorable W. J. Tauzin
Co-Chairman
Energy and Commerce Committee
United States House of Representatives
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable John D. Dingell
Co-Chairman
Energy and Commerce Committee
United States House of Representatives
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairmen:

We are writing on behalf of Friends of Cancer Research, the Washington-based non-profit focused on raising awareness and providing public education on cancer research. We would like to provide our comments regarding the recent report, “Enhancing the Vitality of the National Institutes of Health,” published in August 2003 and issued by the Institute of Medicine/National Research Council.

This report has made helpful contributions to our understanding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and how NIH’s structure and organization are configured to “meet the scientific needs of the 21st century.” By examining means to improve accountability within NIH, and by proposing new and streamlined approaches for information management, methods and infrastructure, this report provides new coordinating mechanisms that could vastly improve NIH’s organizational effectiveness.

We are also pleased that this report identified key need-areas if the NIH is to continue its lifesaving research mission. Among these was the recognition that all administrative functions must remain with the NIH.

The report recognizes the complexities of research conducted at the NIH and suggests that NIH directors “need more authority and more ability to have flexibility...” Within this context it is, therefore, surprising that the report also calls for the uncoupling of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) “special status” within NIH. Research to advance the war on cancer requires an extraordinary and unique commitment of resources. It would seem that such a move would contravene the spirit of the report’s overarching theme that mission authority and resources must be linked and under direct leadership.

Cancer remains the number two killer of all Americans – with more than 1,500 people a day succumbing throughout the United States. Our strong federal commitment to biomedical research and public health programs – much of which is channeled through the NCI – has provided Americans with their best defense against this disease and their best hope for longer-term survival if diagnosed with it. This commitment has evolved from the NCI’s unique position within the NIH. This position has allowed the Institute to focus on critical research initiatives secure in the knowledge that funding will be forthcoming in a manner commensurate with the dire human and economic toll cancer represents to our population.

It would be tragic to place restrictions on the NCI – restrictions that could undermine the institute’s ability to support promising research, to encourage young and talented investigators to enter the cancer research field, and to offer newly diagnosed cancer patients the hope of participating in costly but often life-extending clinical trials. We urge you, therefore, to preserve NCI’s “vitality” and to confirm its special place within the NIH universe for America’s future.

Sincerely,