Lung Cancer Alliance Testifies In Support of Lung Cancer Research Program Within Department of Defense

WASHINGTON, May 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the second time in a week, Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) presented the case to Congress on the need for increased funding for lung cancer research.

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Today, LCA President and CEO Laurie Fenton-Ambrose testified before a House appropriations subcommittee on the Lung Cancer Research Program within the Department of Defense which LCA helped to have established two years ago.

To date Congress has appropriated $35 million for the program which is intended to accelerate progress in lung cancer overall through a patient-oriented research program focused on military men and women at high risk for the disease.

Last week, LCA co-hosted with Women's Policy Inc. a briefing on women and lung cancer, which was the topic of a comprehensive paper published earlier this month entitled "Out of the Shadows, Women and Lung Cancer." The report was done in partnership with the Mary Horrigan Connors Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard.

Fenton-Ambrose said that being able to make the case in person to legislators "is critical in overcoming the lack of public awareness about lung cancer statistics, the under funding of lung cancer research and the inertia in addressing this disease comprehensively."

Lung cancer continues to take more lives each year than breast, prostate, colon and pancreatic cancers combined and less than 15% of patients are alive five years after diagnosis.

While the disease was once primarily diagnosed in active smokers, the majority of new cases now are never smokers or former smokers, many of whom quit decades ago.

For more information on the DOD Testimony and the Women and Lung Cancer Report go to www.lungcanceralliance.org.  

SOURCE Lung Cancer Alliance