Representative Tom Reed is partnering with Camp Good Days to toughen cancer research reporting requirements.
Reed re-introduced legislation, which mandates researchers who are receiving federal money for cancer work to publish the results of clinical trials through the National Institute of Health or other organizations.
“So people around the globe, around the country, can share and look at the results of not only the successful results, but also those that fail,” Reed says. “Because it just doesn't make sense to me that we don't share those failures as much as we share the successes."
The goal, says Reed, is to avoid wasting taxpayer dollars on duplicating studies. He says there is a provision currently in place requiring researchers to report the outcome of studies.
“But there's really no penalty as a result of not doing that,” Reed says. “There is a financial penalty in the statute, but it really isn't enforced. And it really doesn't have any teeth to it. But this bill will have teeth to it."
Under Congressman Reed's Cancer Mission 2020 bill, institutions or researchers who don’t comply with the mandate wouldn't be able to apply for any federal funding in the future. All the clinical data on cancer would go into a database for researchers to check before applying for a grant.
Officials say the country spends $130 billion a year to treat cancer. In Monroe County, cancer is the leading cause of death.
Gary Mervis, Chairman and Founder of Camp Good Days, says the Congressman Reed’s bill would be a large step forward in reaching their goal of curing cancer by the end of the decade.
Mervis says he wants to make “cancer a chronic illness instead of a terminal illness” by “having cancer patients being diagnosed and still be able to live a long life, with good quality.”
Reed says he hopes his bill will get taken up in committee this session. He says support surrounding the legislation is growing in House, but still needs some work in the Senate. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter is co-sponsoring the legislation.
Camp Good Days Cancer Mission 2020 first launched in 2010.