[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 126 (Thursday, August 2, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S10842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  URGING THE PRESIDENT TO DECLARE LUNG CANCER A PUBLIC HEALTH PRIORITY

  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the HELP 
Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 87, and 
that the Senate then proceed to its consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (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.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution 
be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be 
laid upon the table, and that any statements relating thereto be 
printed in the Record as if read.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 87) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                               S. Res. 87

       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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