Fight against cancer must be fully funded

As a multiple cancer survivor, a constituent and a member of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, I ask our federal legislators to fully fund the National Institute of Health for 2011.

Statistics show that one out of two men and one out of three women will have cancer in their lifetimes. Until you are told, “You have cancer,” you cannot imagine how your world and your families change forever. Unfortunately, every year approximately 1.5 million people in the U.S. will endure the experience of a new case of cancer and approximately 560,000 will die of the disease.

Illinois residents continue to have higher cancer incidence rates than national rates; each hour seven people are diagnosed and three die from cancer. We are survivors because research has led the way to advancements in understanding cancer and will continue to lead to a cure. I understand the state of the economy and of our national budget; unfortunately Cancer does not care, it does not sleep, and it does not take a vacation.

Cancer is neither partisan nor political it crosses all socioeconomic boundaries. Its only desire is to kill. Regrettably, without full funding for ongoing research we will slip behind in the advancements we are now seeing. Lacking full funding we will be unable to finance many research projects.

As widely reported in August, cancer is the world's top “economic killer” as well as its likely leading cause of death. Cancer costs our society $228 billion annually in lost productivity and the costs of treatment. In five years, that's $1.14 trillion.

According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer care accounted for an estimated $104.1 billion in medical care expenditures in the U.S. in 2006, and that cost is growing annually.

To fully fund the $35.2 billion budget for the National Institute of Health will help save $1.14 trillion over a five-year period.

Chris E. Nelson

Naperville