[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 83 (Friday, June 23, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1256-E1257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SUPPORT FOR H. RES. 323, H. RES. 863 AND H.R. 1245

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 22, 2006

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, earlier today the House 
overwhelmingly approved House Resolution 323--a resolution I am proud 
to be a co-sponsor of--offered by my good friend Congresswoman Deborah 
Pryce of Ohio. H. Res. 323 is a straightforward bill which expresses 
the House of Representatives' support for increasing childhood cancer 
awareness, treatment, and research.
  The word ``cancer'' evokes powerful emotions. Along with many of my 
colleagues, I know first-hand how devastating cancer can be to the 
individual who has been diagnosed, as well as their family. It is 
thankfully true that more and more people are continuing to lead full 
and productive lives both during and after cancer, but the sad fact is 
that lives once touched by this insidious disease are never truly the 
same again. The tragedy perhaps becomes even worse when cancer invades 
the life of a child.
  I pray for the day when a cure is found and cancer is finally and 
forever eradicated from the face of the earth. In the meantime, as my 
colleague Mr. Deal of Georgia said in his remarks, through research, 
public awareness, education and wise public policy, we can make 
powerful strides towards winning the fight against childhood cancer. I 
hope that the resolution we passed today will help call attention to 
the problem of childhood cancer and the importance of bringing improved 
diagnosis and treatment techniques to bear in this life and death 
struggle. I commend Ms. Pryce for her leadership on this issue, and I 
applaud all of my colleagues for their support of this critically 
important resolution.
  But I believe we can do more and that we should do more to address 
the scourge of cancer before this Congress adjourns for the year.
  For example, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in the 
United States. It is also the second leading cause of cancer related 
deaths in men, claiming around 27,000 lives in 2005 alone according to 
the National Prostate Cancer Coalition. According to the National 
Cancer Institute, in 2005 our Nation likely saw more than 230,000 new 
cases of prostate cancer, meaning that some 2 million American men are 
living with prostate cancer at this time. Statistics also tell us that 
prostate cancer will strike one in six men. Yet tragically, the state 
of prostate cancer care is decades behind what it should be.
  The current screening methods of digital rectal exams and PSA blood 
tests are good tools--but they are not enough. A study funded by the 
National Cancer Institute showed that PSA blood screening tests, the 
most common form of testing for prostate cancer, result in both false 
positives and false negatives. In fact, as evidence suggests that as 
high as 15 percent of men with normal PSA levels actually have prostate 
cancer. We need to start getting serious about our diagnostic and 
treatment options. I firmly believe that men need to continue to get 
tested, even with the chance that the results may be misleading at 
times but I also firmly believe that we should not be satisfied with 
the current state of care. Our fathers, our brothers and our sons 
deserve more accurate technology, more reliable weapons in the fight 
against prostate cancer--tools like digital imaging.
  That is why I am proud to co-sponsor--along with my colleague from 
Maryland, Mr. Cummings--House Resolution 863, to bring attention to the 
urgent need to develop better tools in the fight against prostate 
cancer. Our Resolution simply expresses the sense of the House of 
Representatives that Congress and the Executive Branch should recognize 
the successful use of advanced imaging technologies in the fight 
against breast cancer and provide additional support for the research 
and development of technologies for prostate cancer detection and 
treatment comparable to state-of-the-art mammograms.
  Likewise, I am a proud co-sponsor and passionate supporter of 
Johanna's Law: ``The Gynecologic Cancer Education Act (H.R. 1245)''. 
Ovarian Cancer is the deadliest of the gynecologic cancers, and it is 
the fourth leading cause of cancer death among women living in the 
United States. In 2004, it is estimated that over 25,000 women were 
diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and an estimated 16,000 or so American 
women died as a result of this devastating disease. This is a national 
tragedy, and what makes it even more tragic is the fact that many of 
those deaths could have been prevented if more women and their doctors 
knew the risk factors and recognized the early warning signs of ovarian 
cancer and other gynecological cancers.
  When it is detected early, ovarian cancer is very treatable, 
unfortunately, ovarian cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to 
diagnose because symptoms are sometimes subtle and may be easily 
confused with those of other diseases. As a result, only 29 percent of 
ovarian cancer cases in the U.S. are diagnosed in the early stages. 
When the disease is detected before it has spread beyond the ovaries, 
more than 95 percent of women will survive longer than five years. But, 
in cases where the disease is not detected until it reaches the 
advanced stage, the five-year survival rate plummets to a devastating 
25 percent.
  As there is still no reliable and easy-to-administer screening test 
for ovarian cancer, like

[[Page E1257]]

the Pap smear for cervical cancer or the mammogram for breast cancer, 
early recognition of symptoms is clearly the best way to save a woman's 
live. Without increased education about ovarian cancer and recognition 
of women who are at higher risk for developing ovarian cancer, many 
women and their doctors will continue to ignore or misinterpret the 
symptoms of the disease. Any woman is at risk for developing a 
gynecologic cancer. As we owe it to our fathers, brothers and sons, we 
also owe it to our mothers, our wives and our daughters to do all we 
can to both raise awareness of these terrible diseases, and to fund the 
research necessary to stamp out this kind of cancer once and for all.
  Johanna's Law will be a giant step forward because for the first time 
ever, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will have explicit 
authority to carry out a national campaign to increase the awareness 
and knowledge of women with respect to gynecologic cancers, which shall 
include: (1) maintaining a supply of written materials to provide 
information to the public on gynecologic cancers; and (2) developing 
and placing public service announcements to encourage women to discuss 
their risks of gynecologic cancers with their physicians. The bill also 
requires the Secretary to award grants to nonprofit private entities to 
test different outreach and education strategies for increasing such 
awareness among women and health professionals.
  I am confident that with a national Public Service Announcements 
campaign describing risk factors and symptoms and encouraging women to 
talk to their doctors about their risk of gynecological cancers, that 
we can and will increase early detection of these deadly cancers, and, 
when possible, help women reduce their risk of ever contracting them in 
the first place.
  Mr. Speaker, both House Resolution 863 and H.R. 1245 are currently 
pending before the Energy and Commerce Committee. In closing, I would 
respectfully ask all of my colleagues on the Committee to read these 
two bills because I am confident that after you read them you will come 
to the same conclusion that I have; namely these are good bills, good 
public policy and we need to bring these bills before the full House 
for a vote now. This is literally a matter of life and death.

                          ____________________