Wanted: More Money For Cancer Research

(CBS)  It was 36 years ago when President Richard Nixon committed the federal government to what he called a "war on cancer," CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports. If we can split the atom, he told Congress, we can cure this disease.

But today, the nation's top scientists say, that commitment is slipping.

"We're trying to understand why breast cancer behaves the way that it does," says Dr. Bob Clarke, a leading researcher at Georgetown University. He is studying why breast cancer recurs. But Clarke says his federal grant for the study was cut — and that most cancer scientists are being asked to cut 30 percent.

"The impact is that you can't do the studies the way you want to do them," Clarke says.

At the National Cancer Institute — where most basic cancer research gets funded — the budget has been virtually flat since 2003, with the White House this year proposing a $78 million cut. The human cost this year will be that 3,000 fewer patients will be in clinical trials.

"If we do fewer clinical trials, fewer new treatments will come forward and be available to everybody," Clarke says.

Still, the war on cancer has brought progress. Cancer-related deaths — 554,000 per year — are going down. However, cancer survivors like Lance Armstrong argue that you don't quit when you're ahead, especially when a half-million dead is still a horrible number.

"That's 9/11 every two days. If they dropped that bomb every two days, I'm telling you this country would pay attention," the seven-time Tour de France champion says.

In Congress, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has co-sponsored a bill to increase all medical research, including funding for cancer.

"We're fighting like the dickens," says Harkin, who has lost four of his five siblings to cancer. He blames the budget cuts on the war in Iraq.

"When we're spending $8 billion a month in Iraq, it's very tough to get the money for cancer research," Harkin says.

It's 36 years into the war on cancer, and more patients are being cured than ever. But the white-coated frontline soldiers say they've been slowed at a critical time in the battle.

[drinuk]

me4prezz.
It is exactly of what you comment on which annoys me, especially having lost my father to this dreaded disease. So please dont lecture me !In case you don't understand I will repeat it and unless you are part of the crooked industry which is cancer, given a little serious thought and you may understand. Big Pharma will never cure cancer, THERE AINT NO MONEY IN A CURE and CHEMO is KILLING 80% Of Those taking it. Very little of what cancer charities recieve actually finish up with the patient, it's something like 10%. Furthermore the government should be funding care, Not Generous Taxpayers. Get it into your head, there ARE cures out there, The Pharmaceuticals have been bending over backwards to suppress them because they cannot obtain a patent on them. Now shut up and go read about GRAVIOLA, BITTER MELON and LAETRILE (B-17) They will all beat Cancer and for a few cents. Dummy

[fireinsky-2009]

Sorry for the multiple "sends." Everytime I pressed the button I got an error message that said the publish button has been temporarily disabled.

[fireinsky-2009]

After more than 50 years, when chemo and radiation first appeared in the hospitals, and more than billions of dollars later....guess what....we still have the same treatment!!
The Cancer Industry needs LESS funding, not more because they can't use what money they have had to do responsible research. There are lots of very good alternative treatments such as the Rife machine which should have been researched more and perfected, but alas the Cancer Industry does NOT want to find a cure, or at least, it must cost at least a $100k per hospital visit. All the money for cancer research just keeps scientists in jobs. Hospitals earn a big portion of their income from the cancer ward. With a cure found, these people would be out of work and they won't let that happen! The National Institute of Cancer should be dissolved.

[me4prezz]

fireinsky and drinuk:

Let me find a way to put this delicately.....Um, nope, never mind:

WHERE DO YOU GET OFF SAYING SH*T LIKE THAT! Do you have any idea what cancer does to a person's body, spirit, mind..?? It is an awful way to die and an even more awful experience to watch someone you love so much go through something so painful. We can dump billions of dollars into this stupid war, but you want to cut the funding for scientists to find a cure against cancers that eat away at people who have DONE NOTHING TO DESERVE IT!

You would have a completely different tune when it is you, or your mother, your father, your son/daughter, wife/husband who is battling cancer and you depend on those scientists and researchers to find something to help.

The body is a complex organ and it is VERY difficult to find medications and treatments that will help all the different types of cancers that will not kill all the healthy cells as well, which is why it takes so long to find medicines that help.

Do some of your own research and go to hospitals like St. Judes or the cancer research institutes and ask those patients who are dying if they believe that they are being given a raw deal! You both should be absolutely horrified at the *** you put on here! You are sentencing innocent lives to death by cutting off funding for cancer research and I hope you both get cancer so you can understand the full depth of your ineptitude!

[afubar69]

We can give billions to Haliburton, who can't account for much of it, but cut funding to save lives. Why aren't I surprized?

I'll quarentee you if Haliburton had a medical research section, large amounts of money would be found to cure the common hangnail.

[drinuk]

I agree with Fireinthesky that we should withold all funding to the so-called cancer charities, they are up to their ears with Big Pharma and the Cancer Industry. The whole bunch need hanging from the nearest tree and that includes the crooked people in the FDA.

Every single person making a dollar from Cancer should have the words "First Do No Harm" tatooed on their foreheads.

The good news is that WE are becoming more and more aware of this evil Genocide and that their days are definately numbered. I would advise those on the inside to put their hands up now or suffer the consequences of their complicity.

[fireinsky-2009]

After more than 50 years, when chemo and radiation first appeared in the hospitals, and more than billions of dollars later....guess what....we still have the same treatment!!
The Cancer Industry needs LESS funding, not more because they can't use what money they have had to do responsible research. There are lots of very good alternative treatments such as the Rife machine which should have been researched more and perfected, but alas the Cancer Industry does NOT want to find a cure, or at least, it must cost at least a $100k per hospital visit. All the money for cancer research just keeps scientists in jobs. With a cure found, these people would be out of work and they won't let that happen! The National Institute of Cancer should be dissolved.

[fireinsky-2009]

After more than 50 years, when chemo and radiation first appeared in the hospitals, and more than billions of dollars later....guess what....we still have the same treatment!!
The Cancer Industry needs LESS funding, not more because they can't use what money they have had to do responsible research. There are lots of very good alternative treatments such as the Rife machine which should have been researched more and perfected, but alas the Cancer Industry does NOT want to find a cure, or at least, it must cost at least a $100k per hospital visit. All the money for cancer research just keeps scientists in jobs. With a cure found, these people would be out of work and they won't let that happen! The National Institute of Cancer should be dissolved.

[fireinsky-2009]

After more than 50 years, when chemo and radiation first appeared in the hospitals, and more than billions of dollars later....guess what....we still have the same treatment!!
The Cancer Industry needs LESS funding, not more because they can't use what money they have had to do responsible research. There are lots of very good alternative treatments such as the Rife machine which should have been researched more and perfected, but alas the Cancer Industry does NOT want to find a cure, or at least, it must cost at least a $100k per hospital visit. All the money for cancer research just keeps scientists in jobs. With a cure found, these people would be out of work and they won't let that happen! The National Institute of Cancer should be dissolved.

[fireinsky-2009]

After more than 50 years, when chemo and radiation first appeared in the hospitals, and more than billions of dollars later....guess what....we still have the same treatment!!
The Cancer Industry needs LESS funding, not more because they can't use what money they have had to do responsible research. There are lots of very good alternative treatments such as the Rife machine which should have been researched more and perfected, but alas the Cancer Industry does NOT want to find a cure, or at least, it must cost at least a $100k per hospital visit. All the money for cancer research just keeps scientists in jobs. With a cure found, these people would be out of work and they won't let that happen! The National Institute of Cancer should be dissolved.