Funding next generation of cancer cures

For a parent, there is perhaps no greater fear than that of losing a child, and a childhood cancer diagnosis has the greatest potential to make that possibility a reality. As a pediatric oncologist who has cared for children with cancer and their families for more than two decades, I know that only a parent who has confronted childhood cancer truly understands the depth of this fear, which touches the core of who we are as parents.

In the 1960s, a diagnosis of the most common form of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, meant almost certain death, with less than a 10 percent chance that it would be cured. However, a child facing the same diagnosis today has better than an 80 percent chance of being cured.

How did an almost uniformly fatal disease become a largely curable one? Talented research physicians and scientists across the country were obviously responsible for the success. But so was the American taxpayer. Research funding from the National Cancer Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health, drove dramatic changes in the treatment of children with cancer.

It's a heartening story, but it has a sobering epilogue. Even though the outlook for children with cancer has improved, cancer remains the leading cause of death from disease among children. And although we now cure almost four out of five children diagnosed with cancer, we do so with drugs that were discovered more than 30 years ago. We often have to administer these chemotherapeutic drugs in high doses, and their side effects can be severe, sometimes leading to lifelong challenges for childhood cancer survivors.

We are, however, entering an era of unprecedented discovery. We now have the tools to uncover the underlying basis of all childhood cancers - and therefore the potential to transform the way we treat children with these dreaded diseases.

A nationwide team of physicians, scientists, nurses, psychologists, and other health professionals is poised to fundamentally improve the outcomes for children with cancer. Through the National Cancer Institute-funded Children's Oncology Group, we have linked thousands of experts from virtually every childhood cancer program in the country to an unprecedented collaborative effort focused on turning today's science into cures.

At the same time, though, that essential factor in the last generation of major advances - NIH research funding - is now at risk. Even as we should be investing in discovery and better treatments, the NIH budget is shrinking. And with budget cuts, the prospects of the next generation of children with cancer are deteriorating. Federal funding cuts will help ensure that cancer continues to be the No. 1 cause of disease-related death for children, and that too many of its survivors will continue to pay the high price of a lifetime of side effects.

I am scheduled to speak at a Childhood Cancer Summit hosted by the Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus in Washington on Friday. I plan to take the opportunity to recall that more than 50 years ago, our country rose to meet a daunting challenge and develop the first cures for children with leukemia. The results of our working together to meet that challenge have been astounding.

We need to once again seize a historic opportunity in medical science and assure that children with cancer not only can be cured, but that they can be treated in a way that affords them a lifetime of health and well-being.

This challenge will be met only with full funding of the National Institutes of Health. We must remind our representatives that every death of a child from cancer is a profound loss. And we must stand together to improve outcomes for children with cancer and lessen the fears their parents face.