[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8790]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NETHERCUTT. Mr. Speaker, the National Cancer Institute estimates 
that over 8 million Americans alive today have a history of cancer. 
Before the millennium, it is expected that over one million new cancer 
cases will be diagnosed. Just in this decade, approximately 12 million 
patients will have cancer detected.
  This year it is anticipated that over 500,000 Americans will succumb 
to cancer. That is over 1,500 people per day. Today, cancer is the 
second leading cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by 
heart disease. A bright spot in this tragic picture is the fact that 
when all cancers are combined, the 5-year survival rate is 60 percent.
  So I am pleased to rise today to highlight the excellent work being 
done at Washington State University's Cancer Prevention and Research 
Center, a center that is in my own district in Pullman, Washington, to 
help win this fight against cancer.
  This center in Pullman is the focal point for cancer research at 
Washington State University. The center is located within the College 
of Pharmacy, where cancer is the core of the research conducted in the 
Pharmaceutical Sciences Department. The researchers there in several 
other Washington State University research departments are studying the 
deadly disease, including some in biochemistry, food sciences and human 
nutrition, microbiology and zoology, veterinary medicine, and many, 
many more.
  Today, the Cancer Center is a catalyst to mobilize collaborative 
research efforts within the University and the surrounding health care 
community, especially Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. The goals 
of the Center in its work are to attack cancer through a 
multidisciplinary research approach, provide central support services 
and shared facilities for ongoing research, facilitate translation of 
basic research to the clinic, and educate health professionals and the 
public about healthy life-styles and cancer prevention.
  The new director of the center, Gary Meadows, hopes to make WSU, 
Washington State University, and its Cancer Prevention Research Center 
the major cancer organization in eastern Washington. And our State, by 
the way, is rich in cancer research facilities: The Hutchinson Cancer 
Research Center in Seattle, the University of Washington Medical 
School, and many other university support services provide great 
research for cancer.
  So I applaud and encourage Dr. Meadows and his colleagues for their 
demanding pursuit to eradicate this deadly disease, and I urge my 
colleagues to consider favorably additional funding through the 
National Institutes of Health and research grants for not only cancer 
research and a possible cure but for diabetes and Alzheimer's and 
multiple sclerosis and all the other diseases that affect Americans 
throughout this country.

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