Ending cancer as we know it must start today. Send a message to your members of Congress.

With Congress back in session to complete their hectic year-end agenda, there's one item that must be on their to-do list — Congress must take bold actions to pass laws that help prevent, detect, and effectively treat cancer. These policies could save countless lives.

To end cancer as we know it, Congress must act swiftly to: 

  • Increase funding for lifesaving cancer research and prevention,
  • Increase access to the latest innovative technologies to detect cancer at its earliest, most treatable stages,
  • And improve quality of life for cancer patients at all ages and stages of the disease. 
 

Will you send a message to your members of Congress right now asking them to pass a year-end package that prioritizes policies to prevent, detect, and effectively treat cancer?

From the research bench all the way to a patient's bedside, now is the time for Congress to prioritize policies to end cancer as we know it, for everyone. Sign the petition today to urge your legislators to take immediate action to end cancer. 

Dear [elected official], 


As a constituent and volunteer for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), I am writing to urge you to port legislative priorities that will address the needs of millions of cancer patients, survivors, and those at risk of a cancer diagnosis in the year-end legislative package. 


The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are the foundation of our national cancer research program and support research in every state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's cancer programs also play a critical role in bringing cancer prevention to communities.  


To save more lives from cancer, I urge you to include a $4.1 billion funding increase for the National Institutes of Health with an additional $853 million for cancer research at the National Cancer Institute.  We also urge you to include $462.6 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) cancer programs, including $225 million for the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. 


I also urge you to include H.R. 1946/S.1873, the Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act in the year end package. In 2022 alone, there will be as estimated 1.9 million new cancer diagnoses. For too many of those Americans, their diagnosis will come too late, after the cancer has already spread throughout the body. 


New blood-based screenings hold tremendous promise to find cancer earlier before symptoms arise. By combining the latest advances in genomic sequencing and computing power, published data indicate multi-cancer early detection tests have shown the ability to detect many cancers from a simple blood draw.2 These new tools are expected to dramatically expand the benefits of early detection to more cancers, and expand detection's reach to more settings of care, enabling earlier treatment for a wider range of cancers. First, however, there must be a pathway to access in Medicare. The MCED Act is not a mandate for coverage. It is a game-changing bill empowering Medicare, upon approval by the FDA and when these tests have been shown to have clinical benefit, to consider multi-cancer tests. This bill could directly address long-standing health care disparities for low-income people and ethnic minorities.   


I also urge you to include the bipartisan Diversifying Investigations Via Equitable Research Studies for Everyone (DIVERSE) Trials Act (H.R. 5030/S. 2706), which will help promote equitable access to clinical trials by bringing trials to patients where possible and enabling sponsors to provide support to patients for added non-medical costs like travel. 


Finally, please include the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (PCHETA), The Verifying Accurate Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act (S. 2209/ H.R. 4128), and Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico in the final package. 




Sincerely,


[Your Name]

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