Increase funding for childhood cancer research

Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for children aged 1-19.

The evidence is clear:

  • This year, 15,990 children will be diagnosed with cancer and 1,780 children will die from cancer.
  • Nearly 40% of childhood cancer survivors aged 35 or older have experienced a severe or life-threatening health condition, or have died, which is a rate over five times higher than that of their siblings.
  • Approximately 483,000 survivors of childhood cancer are alive in the United States today.
  • More cancer research funding is needed to find new and better treatments that save lives and have less side-effects for survivors.

I call on Congress to make cancer research funding a national priority this year by funding the National Institutes of Health at $51.7 billion and the National Cancer Institute at $7.6 billion in next year’s spending bill.