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Speakers at Moffitt forum say cancer 'moonshot' will require more money

 
U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, and Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, discussed cancer research funding possibilities during a forum Monday at Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center. [Octavio Jones/Tampa Bay Times]
U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, and Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, discussed cancer research funding possibilities during a forum Monday at Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center. [Octavio Jones/Tampa Bay Times]
Published March 8, 2016

Cancer researchers are on the verge of making significant advances that could reduce the mortality rate for people with the disease, National Cancer Institute Acting Director Douglas Lowy said Monday during a visit to Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center.

"What we've been able to do for HIV — to take a death sentence and turn it into a disease where people who have HIV can look forward to a normal life expectancy — I think with cancer, we'll have the same opportunity," Lowy told a group of doctors, scientists and patients gathered for a panel discussion on cancer research.

His trip to Moffitt comes amid a renewed national effort to eradicate the disease led by Vice President Joe Biden. Moffitt's top executives have already met with Biden's staff to discuss their involvement in his so-called "cancer moonshot," and are hoping to play a key role in the initiative.

"We're excited about what lies ahead," CEO Alan List said.

In his remarks on Monday, Lowy said the cancer mortality rate had dropped 15 percent for men and 12 percent for women since 1992, and added the number of survivors is climbing.

"This is attributable to prevention, screening and treatment," he said.

But Lowy conceded "too many people still get cancer," and despite the recent $2 billion boost to the National Institutes of Health, almost every area of cancer research remains underfunded.

As for what's ahead, Lowy spoke to advances in immunotherapy, an approach to treatment that uses the patient's own immune system to fight the cancer, as well as precision medicine, which takes the patient's genes into account.

He also said scientists were working on vaccines that could prevent cancer, like the vaccine he helped develop to protect against cervical cancer. That vaccine has reduced the prevalence of the cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV) in teenage girls by about two-thirds, according to a study published last month in the journal Pediatrics.

Other speakers at the event included U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, and Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, who have been working together on a proposal called the 21st Century Cures Act. The legislation, which would increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by more than $8 billion, has already won approval in the House, but has met resistance in the Senate.

Bilirakis rebuffed criticism that the measure was too costly.

"These are tough economic times," he said. "We have a $19 trillion national debt. The thing is, this is a priority."

In addition to addressing the need for the increased funding, Castor stressed the importance of educating the public about preventative measures, such as the HPV vaccine.

"We spend a lot of money and we talk a lot about finding a cure for cancer," she said. "But here's a vaccine that prevents some kinds of cancer" and some parents are resisting it, she said.

The panel discussion also featured Jacqueline Smith, a 37-year-old Moffitt patient who has twice been diagnosed with melanoma. Smith said she owes her life to a clinical trial she completed at the cancer center in 2008.

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She, too, made the case for more funding.

"It's critical that the government does not just (haphazardly give out) funding, but that funding continues to grow with inflation, and that our researchers here and across the country can know that they will have predictable and sustained research funding for all of their endeavors," she said. "That's critical for survivors and their families."

Contact Kathleen McGrory at kmcgrory@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8330. Follow @kmcgrory.