Fight Against Cancer

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the fight against cancer. Although there have been great medical strides made over the years, it is sobering to think that today, in this nation, someone will die of cancer every 60 seconds. That is a terrible outcome, and we need to remain vigilant in our fight to eradicate this awful disease.

It is true that much has been done in recent decades to extend lives, to save lives, and to improve the lives of individuals who have cancer, but still there is much more that we can do. Patients are still being denied access to innovative treatments for reasons that have nothing to do with the effectiveness of a treatment and everything to do with the fact that we are studying, regulating, and paying for new cancer drugs in the same way we did 50 years ago. In the face of the Ebola crisis, the federal government and healthcare organizations have reduced regulatory barriers in order to reduce the time required to get new medicines to patients from six years to less than two. We owe it to cancer patients to allow them the same rapid access to these treatments, particularly when it might be their only hope of survival.

In particular, there are three at least policy objectives we should be pursuing: (1) to direct the FDA to approve new life-extending drugs for cancer once Phase I studies show a high response rate; (2) to encourage programs that provide early detection and identification of genetic mutations that are known to increase cancer risks; and (3) to require that the FDA accelerate access to experimental treatments for patients who have run out of treatment options or are excluded from clinical trials.

These are critical policy goals that must be considered by Congress. There is no doubt that some minds at the FDA may be difficult to change. But I believe that difficulty cannot be compared to the life and death decisions that our citizens and their families and friends face when access to the innovative cancer therapies that provide their best or only chance to save, prolong and improve their lives remains out of reach because of our lack of action.

This is a challenge we can meet, and I'm optimistic that we will.

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