Congress must boost funding to fight cancer

I traveled to Washington, D.C., two weeks ago to represent the voice of cancer survivors and patients in Ohio. I met with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman's staff to emphasize that there is perhaps no better way for Congress to demonstrate its support for the fight against cancer than by funding that fight.

By increasing federal funding for cancer research at the National Cancer Institute and prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we can stop cancer before it starts and get one step closer to a cancerfree world.

Federal investments in cancer research and prevention have led to dramatic improvements in how we prevent, detect and treat cancer.

Unfortunately, without adequate federal funding, the next breakthroughs in treatment and prevention may languish in labs across the country while cancer patients sit waiting.

Our elected officials need to hear from the nearly 14 million cancer survivors in this country. Readers can visit www.acscan.org/nci to be connected to people in their community, and learn more about why cancer research and prevention funding matters to us.

We need to tell Congress that we can’t afford to let promising research go to waste. ROB LUCAS

Volunteer American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

Columbus