Have I been abandoned? I feel as if I have. In today’s mail was a letter from my kidney oncologist (I also have renal cancer) telling me that he will no longer accept my insurance! He said that he hoped that I would continue to use him as my physician, but if not he recommended [...]
Yesterday afternoon Senators Harkin and Specter introduced a landmark supplemental funding bill for the NIH. The Senator's bill proposes providing the National Cancer Institute with an additional $1.2 billion and the rest of the National Institutes of Health with $4 billion for FY 2008. This bill stems from their concern about the inadequate funding for [...]
A short time ago, I asked you to write to your legislators and encourage them to increase the nation's investment in cancer research and early detection programs in the federal government's 2009 budget. This funding is crucial to discovering and delivering the cures that we so desperately need. Thanks to your efforts, both the Senate [...]
Health care reimbursement rates from insurance companies and Medicare drive many of our medical decisions in the United States. Call me a liberal, but I do believe that health care is a right, not a privilege and that financial decisions should NOT play a role in the decisions about what is best for patients. However, [...]
I want to change pace a little today and instead of directly discussing advanced prostate cancer, I am going to discuss an issue that has been coming up in our community, universal prostate cancer screening. We have all been embattled in an on going dispute, a disagreement about the value of general prostate cancer screening. [...]
My wife Wendy and I wrote the following as a response to a Father's Day article in the New York Times. Gina Kolata published a front page article in today’s (Sunday, 15 June 2008) New York Times entitled “New Take on a Prostate Drug, and a New Debate.” The article is about the use of [...]
Today we can all celebrate because the Senate voted overwhelming to pass a supplemental appropriations bill that includes additional funding for cancer research. In a 75-22 vote, senators approved $400 million in additional funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The effort to approve this legislation was spearheaded by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA). We [...]
I have been very negligent in not writing about my experience at the American Association of Cancer Researchers (AACR) annual meeting that I attended last month. I found that there was so much information, experiences and emotions that I came away feeling very awed and somewhat over whelmed by the experience. I am still [...]
Susan G. Komen for the Cure CEO Hala Moddelmog testified before a special hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the need for comprehensive legislation to address the nation's cancer crisis. Along with Moddeling at the committee meeting was Elizabeth Edwards and Lance Armstrong. Moddeling, in her testimony, emphasized the [...]
Federal Advocacy Update that you need to become involved with: There are three resolutions that NPCC is currently educating legislators about: H.Res 672 is sponsored by Doris Matui's office (CA-5) and it supports the goals and ideals of National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September. This resolution recognizes the main issues surrounding the lack of [...]
