Lungevity, one of the premier organizations for support and advocacy for people dealing with lung cancer, is calling for people to deluge Congress with requests for funding for lung cancer research in 2024. The simplest way to reach your congressperson is via this form.
Their instructions to us are simple:
- Read the letter and add a few sentences about why this issue is important to you personally.
- Submit the letter by clicking the Take Action Now button.
- Share the message below with family, friends, and social network!
Perhaps your message would mention the person/people you know with lung cancer, or the impact lung cancer has had on your life, as a friend, colleague, or general supporter of those dealing with it. Here’s the body of the letter.
I am writing to thank Congress for increasing funding for lung cancer research in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. I also ask that you continue to prioritize this vital research by supporting appropriations of $60 million for the Lung Cancer Research Program (LCRP) at the Department of Defense in FY 2024. [Note: if the only way you can get funding is through the DOD, then you go for whatever angle you can.]
The LCRP, part of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), funds innovative research into new ways to prevent, detect, and treat lung cancer for Service Members, Veterans, and the American public.
According to the National Cancer Institute, lung cancer accounts for nearly one quarter of all cancer deaths in the United States and is the third-most common cancer in both men and women. In 2023, over 238,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer, and it will be responsible for an estimated 127,000 deaths. Moreover, lung cancer incidence is approximately 25% higher among military Service Members and Veterans compared to the general population due to higher rates of smoking and exposure to carcinogens during active duty.
Thanks to recent advances supported by years of research, new treatments are extending the lives of those living with lung cancer, and patients are being diagnosed in earlier stages when their prognosis is better. However, the five-year survival rate for lung cancer is still less than 20%, and more discoveries are urgently needed to help all of those impacted by this disease.
I respectfully urge you and your colleagues to support $60 million for the LCRP in FY 2024. This amount would allow the program to fund the majority of proposals rated excellent or outstanding by a panel of expert reviewers.
Thank you very much for considering my views.
I write every once in a while. Last year, I even received a phone call from the office of one of my senators. Nothing much came of it, but it proves they do read email. If you feel that an individual email might be more effective than one in a bundle, you could copy and paste as much as you want of the letter above.
I’m a big fan of research [understatement]– my current treatment regimen involves a single orange pill, osimertinib, which blocks proteins on cancer cells that encourage the cancer to grow. It was approved in the U.S. by the FDA as a Breakthrough Therapy after Phase I trials in 2014, and then through an accelerated approval process in 2015.
As my cancer group says, you keep going, hoping that by the time the lung cancer progresses, there are new treatments that can buy you more time. (Sneaky, crappy cancer that lung cancer is, progression of some kind currently seems/is inevitable.)
The American Cancer Society’s estimates for lung cancer in the US for 2023 are:
- About 238,340 new cases of lung cancer (117,550 in men and 120,790 in women)
- About 127,070 deaths from lung cancer (67,160 in men and 59,910 in women)
There are currently 934 clinical studies focused on lung cancer in the U.S.; when local treatment options have run out, members of my group have traveled across the country to participate in a trial related to their particular kind of lung cancer. Clinical trials are risky, but they’ve saved (prolonged) the lives of a number of folks in my cancer group; almost all of us use therapies that are in trials now or have been recently approved.
It costs money to run a research lab, design and carry out a clinical trial. Lives depend on this research.
And, to be completely transparent, probably mine.
So write a little letter, willya?
And, thanks, for reading and for writing.