I am in Orlando Florida attending the Department of Defense Impact Conference for the Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) This DOD program is among the largest funders of prostate cancer research in the world and what is important is that the funding is designed to move research ideas that are specifically designed to have a maximum impact on the prostate cancer community.
Today’s meeting was an exciting experience as we heard discussed many of the pieces of good news coming down the pike, things such as abiriterone and MDV3100. The DOD program has funded, along with the Prostate Cancer Foundation, a consortium of 13 different cancer centers that has managed to accelerate the rate of phase III trials, including the trials for these two potential jack pot treatments coming down the pike.
I am not really planning to write this post about the conference, that will come in the next few days. What I do want to share with you is the news I received at the end of what had been a glorious day.
Senator John McCain, in comments from the floor of the Senate, while discussing the Continuing Resolution, said the following:
“The aspects of the Defense Appropriations bill that need to be taken away, eliminated, are $300 million for medical research. I am sure the medical research is important, but it has nothing to do with national defense. Within that $300 million is $15 million for peer-reviewed Alzheimer’s research, $150 million for peer-reviewed breast cancer research, $12.8 million for peer-reviewed lung cancer research, $20 million for peer
reviewed ovarian cancer research, $80 million for peer-reviewed prostate cancer research, and … — all of which are worthy causes, but none have anything to do with defending this country. If they want them to be funded–and they deserve to be in many respects — they should come out of the Health and Human Services Appropriations, not out of Defense.”
Now remember, the senator is a man who has been treated multiple times for malignant melanoma. I am in