[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 87 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 87
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should declare
lung cancer a public health priority and should implement a
comprehensive interagency program to reduce the lung cancer mortality
rate by at least 50 percent by 2015.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 27, 2007
Mr. Hagel (for himself, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Brownback, and Mrs.
Feinstein) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should declare
lung cancer a public health priority and should implement a
comprehensive interagency program to reduce the lung cancer mortality
rate by at least 50 percent by 2015.
Whereas lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women,
accounting for 28 percent of all cancer deaths;
Whereas lung cancer kills more people annually than breast cancer, prostate
cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, melanoma, and kidney cancer
combined;
Whereas, since the National Cancer Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-218; 85 Stat.
778), coordinated and comprehensive research has raised the 5-year
survival rates for breast cancer to 88 percent, for prostate cancer to
99 percent, and for colon cancer to 64 percent;
Whereas the 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is still only 15 percent and a
similar coordinated and comprehensive research effort is required to
achieve increases in lung cancer survivability rates;
Whereas 60 percent of lung cancer cases are now diagnosed in nonsmokers or
former smokers;
Whereas \2/3\ of nonsmokers diagnosed with lung cancer are women;
Whereas certain minority populations, such as Black males, have
disproportionately high rates of lung cancer incidence and mortality,
notwithstanding their lower smoking rate;
Whereas members of the baby boomer generation are entering their sixties, the
most common age at which people develop cancer;
Whereas tobacco addiction and exposure to other lung cancer carcinogens such as
Agent Orange and other herbicides and battlefield emissions are serious
problems among military personnel and war veterans;
Whereas the August 2001 Report of the Lung Cancer Progress Review Group of the
National Cancer Institute stated that funding for lung cancer research
was ``far below the levels characterized for other common malignancies
and far out of proportion to its massive health impact'';
Whereas the Report of the Lung Cancer Progress Review Group identified as its
``highest priority'' the creation of integrated, multidisciplinary,
multi-institutional research consortia organized around the problem of
lung cancer rather than around specific research disciplines; and
Whereas the United States must enhance its response to the issues raised in the
Report of the Lung Cancer Progress Review Group: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the President
should--
(1) declare lung cancer a public health priority and
immediately lead a coordinated effort to reduce the lung cancer
mortality rate by 50 percent by 2015;
(2) direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to
increase funding for lung cancer research and other lung
cancer-related programs as part of a coordinated strategy with
defined goals, including--
(A) translational research and specialized lung
cancer research centers;
(B) expansion of existing multi-institutional,
population-based screening programs incorporating
state-of-the-art image processing, centralized review,
clinical management, and tobacco cessation protocols;
(C) research on disparities in lung cancer
incidence and mortality rates;
(D) graduate medical education programs in thoracic
medicine and cardiothoracic surgery;
(E) new programs within the Food and Drug
Administration to expedite the development of
chemoprevention and targeted therapies for lung cancer;
(F) annual reviews by the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality of lung cancer screening and
treatment protocols;
(G) the appointment of a lung cancer director
within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
with authority to improve lung cancer surveillance and
screening programs; and
(H) lung cancer screening demonstration programs
under the direction of the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services;
(3) direct the Secretary of Defense, in conjunction with
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to develop a broad-based
lung cancer screening and disease management program among
members of the Armed Forces and veterans, and to develop
technologically advanced diagnostic programs for the early
detection of lung cancer;
(4) appoint a Lung Cancer Scientific and Medical Advisory
Committee, comprised of medical, scientific, pharmaceutical,
and patient advocacy representatives, to--
(A) work with the National Lung Cancer Public
Health Policy Board described in paragraph (5); and
(B) report to the President and Congress on the
progress toward and the obstacles to achieving the goal
described in paragraph (1) of reducing the lung cancer
mortality rate by 50 percent by 2015; and
(5) convene a National Lung Cancer Public Health Policy
Board, comprised of multiagency and multidepartment
representatives and at least 3 members of the Lung Cancer
Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee, to oversee and
coordinate all efforts to accomplish the goal described in
paragraph (1) of reducing the lung cancer mortality rate by 50
percent by 2015.
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