[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 10, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RECOGNIZING THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY

                                  _____
                                 

                         HON. KEITH J. ROTHFUS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 10, 2014

  Mr. ROTHFUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the American 
Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO) fiftieth anniversary.
  Since ASCO's founding in 1964, it has made tremendous gains to 
improve the lives of Americans diagnosed with cancer. When the Society 
was formed, cancer was often fatal with few effective treatments. 
Today, new and innovative treatments have developed that are changing 
what it means to receive a cancer diagnosis.
  As a survivor of cancer of the appendix, I can attest to this 
personally. In 2007 I received an innovative treatment called 
hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. This involves washing the 
abdomen with heated chemotherapy to eliminate cancerous cells. A little 
more than a year after receiving this treatment, I ran my first 
marathon. Three years later I began my first campaign for Congress, and 
seven years later I am still cancer-free.
  Advancements in cancer treatments like this bring hope to the 
millions of Americans suffering from cancer, and the 1.6 million 
Americans who will receive a cancer diagnosis this year.
  I thank the ASCO for its continued research and contributions to the 
science in the last fifty years, and I look forward to the development 
of even more innovations to fight and cure cancer.

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