[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 160 (Wednesday, December 14, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           PEDIATRIC CANCER INROADS AT UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

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                           HON. CLIFF STEARNS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 14, 2005

  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, there is exciting news recently from the 
University of Florida, in Gainesville, Florida, in the fight against 
pediatric cancer. UF scientists believe that they have linked stem 
cells to a certain type of childhood bone cancer. This discovery could 
eventually be the key to treating osteosarcoma, the most common form of 
bone malignancy among children.
  Osteosarcoma is a highly aggressive cancer that kills 40 percent of 
the children diagnosed, most of whom are between the ages of 10 and 20. 
Currently the only treatment is year-long doses of chemotherapy and 
radical surgery. Scientists contend that these stem cells, which have 
also been linked to cancers such as leukemia and more recently breast 
cancer, are the only cells that freely replicate and the ability to 
target these cells will allow doctors to develop new forms of therapy 
that are much less toxic and far less invasive than existing 
treatments. Good work and a hopeful prognosis, UF researchers.

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