Download BLOOD CANCER RESEARCH AT DoD

BLOOD CANCER RESEARCH AT DoD:
SERVING MILITARY PERSONNEL AND OTHERS WITH CANCER
Urge Congress to include a blood cancer research initiative in the Department of Defense
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. A blood cancer research effort would
investigate special problems that may confront military personnel but could yield benefits for
all Americans with cancer by answering fundamental questions about cancer and accelerating
the development of new treatments.
The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program has been successful in funding high
impact research on a number of different forms of cancer as well as several other diseases.
The blood cancers have been funded on an ad hoc basis through a general fund that is part of
the program. The Defense Appropriations Conference Committee has the opportunity to
establish a specific initiative to direct funds to blood cancer research. Such a program would
fund research on leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple
myeloma.
Investing in blood cancer research has the potential to answer fundamental questions about the
links between herbicide exposure experienced by military personnel and their development of
cancer. Moreover, basic and clinical research on blood cancers may lead to improved treatments
for those who have suffered these exposures. But the benefits of a blood cancer research
program will extend beyond military personnel to others with blood cancers and even those with
solid tumors. A modest investment in this effort will yield significant dividends.
A blood cancer research program at the Department of Defense will:
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Support research on basic and clinical questions about blood cancers, which in 2007
will be diagnosed in more than 135,000 Americans.
Contribute to research on treatments that may reduce the 50,000 deaths projected from
blood cancers in 2007.
Address the serious burden of the blood cancers. Although treatment of childhood
leukemia has improved dramatically in the last 30 years and Hodgkin lymphoma is
often curable, the outlook is much more challenging and treatment options for other
blood cancers remain extremely limited. The five-year survival rate for non-Hodgkin
lymphoma is 63%, for leukemia it lags at 50%, and for multiple myeloma it is only
33%.
Include research on the fifth most common form of cancer among the portfolio of
diseases in the successful Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.
Advance treatments for forms of cancer beyond the blood cancers. Research on the
blood cancers has routinely contributed to improvements in the basic understanding of
solid tumors, and treatments that are initially developed for the blood cancers are often
quickly introduced as treatments for solid tumors. For example, chemotherapy
regimens pioneered in the blood cancers are now widely used to treat solid tumors.
Answer questions about the late and long-term effects of cancer treatment. Blood
cancer researchers have led the way in understanding the need to reduce the toxicities
associated with cancer treatment and can share that knowledge in order to improve
treatments of all forms of cancer.