Here’s a Fight That Transcends Politics

IT IS UNACCEPTABLE in this day and age that there is a cancer for which the relative five-year survival rate is still in the single digits at just 6 percent. It is particularly unacceptable when you consider that the overall fiveyear relative survival for all cancers is now 67 percent and the overall cancer incidence and death rates are declining, while the incidence and death rates for pancreatic cancer, the nation’s fourth-leading cause of cancer-related death, are increasing. This situation cannot be allowed to continue.

Congress has the power to change these statistics by passing the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act (S. 362/H.R. 733), which will ensure that the National Cancer Institute develops a long-term comprehensive strategic research plan. The bill has overwhelming bipartisan support, including half of the Senate and over half of the House. On June 26, advocates from New Mexico (joined) more than 600 individuals from across the country in Washington, D.C., for the Sixth Annual Pancreatic Cancer Advocacy Day to urge Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall to support the bill and bring it to the Senate floor for a vote before the end of the year. Go to www.knowitfightitendit.org to learn more. Together, we can make a difference in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

NANCY MURPHY BOWLES Community Representative/ Volunteer Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

Albuquerque