This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.
REMARKS BY: TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: The President's Cancer Panel DATE: May 25, 2001
I'm especially pleased to be joined by those of you who are cancer patients or cancer survivors. You are the reason why we're here today. Your courage and tenacity are inspiring. We need your counsel and we value your input. Thank you for allowing us to hear your stories and gain insight from your experiences.
There's no question that all of us must fight this battle together. None of us can do the job alone. But together, we form a powerful alliance against a common enemy, the ravaging disease called cancer.
Let me say at the outset that all of us at the Department of Health and Human Services need your help. We are on the verge of implementing treatments that will change the way we deal with cancer patients. I'll talk about that more in a moment. But please know that I consider HHS and myself your partners in the truest sense of the word.
Before I talk with you about what the administration is doing in our fight against cancer, let me make two personal observations.
First, I come from Elroy, Wisconsin, a town of about 1,500 people. When you come from a small town like Elroy, you gain a perspective on life you never lose. People in small towns aren't statistics or numbers on a page. They're real individuals. When someone gets a disease like cancer, it affects the whole community because you know that person as a friend and neighbor.
As a governor and now as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, I've carried that understanding with me. Public policies affect real people, not nameless lines in an actuarial table.
But let me also share an experience even closer to home. My wife Sue Ann is a long-time breast cancer survivor. I know what it's like to be told that a person you love has cancer. I know the courage it takes to fight the disease, courage personified by some of you here. And I know the joy of seeing Sue Ann win her fight.
That victory would not have been possible without the help of dedicated people like you. Without the physicians, nurses and researchers that work to thwart cancer.
Each of you has your own story. All are unique, but each shares a common basis: the need to beat cancer.
We all know how high the stakes are, for us personally and for our country. Every year, 1.2 million Americans develop some form of cancer. One of every four deaths that occur annually is cancer-related. That's 550,000 people.
But there's good news, as well. There are some astonishing new treatment possibilities, such as treating cancer at the genetic level and eliminating diseased cells while protecting healthy ones.
We announced one new treatment just a few weeks ago when HHS approved a drug called Gleevec. It's a pill that puts a form of leukemia called CML into remission. Its development marks one of those rare moments when we can legitimately say that it looks like we've beaten back a vicious form of cancer.
Gleevec marks the wave of the future because it is the first cancer drug that is the product of molecular targeting, the groundbreaking ability to deliver a drug directly to the diseased cells, leaving the healthy cells alone.
Gleevec targets a single cancer-causing protein and like a light switch, turns off its signal to produce leukemia cells.
The researchers at NIH were able to develop Gleevec because, for many years, they have worked to understand the biology of the cancer cell at the molecular level.
And let me take a moment to thank Dr. Rick Klausner for his outstanding leadership in spearheading the Gleevec project. In my months at HHS, I've come to greatly appreciate Dr. Klausner and his fine stewardship of the National Cancer Institute at NIH. He's a valued member of the HHS team.
The NIH has joined their research with extensive human clinical trials and the development of a national network of cancer centers that link research. These cancer centers also work to keep doctors and other health care professionals abreast of the latest developments.
The NIH also operates an unrivaled cancer surveillance and epidemiology program to monitor cancer at every level.
This multi-pronged approach is paying off, as now other promising treatments are in the offing. One of them is a process called antiangiogenesis, which denies malignant tumors the blood they need to continuing growing. The National Cancer Institute has supported 71 clinical trials of antiangiogenesis drugs.
We're reviewing the tests and the data they have produced. We don't have a definite answer yet as to how effective antiangiogenesis might be, but we're continuing to explore this exciting potential treatment.
Of course, these developments don't tell the whole story. If they did, we wouldn't be here today. So let me talk with you a bit about what else we're doing at HHS to combat cancer and what our agenda is for the future.
President Bush has submitted an aggressive, forward-looking budget that's designed to boost anti-cancer efforts as never before. The President's budget reflects how serious he is about waging a winning war against cancer.
The President is sending a clear message: he doesn't just want us treating a disease - he wants us beating a disease - especially such an onerous disease as cancer.
The 2002 budget provides $23.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health, a $2.75 billion increase over 2001 and the largest ever for NIH. Our funding for NIH includes 34,000 research grants, the most ever provided.
A cornerstone of this year's NIH budget is an increase of $514 million for cancer-related research in 2002. That's a nearly 12 percent increase.
And while I'm discussing the NIH budget, let me also note that NIH is revitalizing the way it develops and conducts clinical trials of cancer treatments.
We want to make the trial process more flexible and more inclusive. We want to encourage greater feedback from patients and their families, as well as the researchers and practitioners who conduct the trials.
The new system is designed to speed new ideas from lab to clinic, streamline the paperwork and expedite the reporting process. The bottom line is that the new clinical trial system will enable people with cancer to receive a higher quality of care - and receive it faster.
Our budget also includes funds to continue the revitalization of key facilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. I visited the CDC recently and was surprised to learn that the Atlanta headquarters are distributed among 22 different buildings.
I'm sure that the Atlanta taxi industry is pleased by that kind of geographic diffusion. But our job is not to help Atlanta cabbies. It's to provide funding so that the CDC can fulfill its mission of preventing and controlling disease, injury and disability.
In the President's budget, he asks for support to build a laboratory facility dedicated to handling the most highly infectious pathogens as well as construction of an environmental toxicology lab. We want to bring the facilities of the CDC together so its scientists can work together more closely and effectively.
One more thing about the CDC: As many of you know, the CDC has a cancer-screening program that's available to poor women nationwide. Under legislation that took effect last October, the federal share of costs for treating cancer in women on Medicaid can now go as high as 85 percent. That will enable many, many disadvantaged women to receive treatment they otherwise could not afford.
On a broader level, the President's budget seeks to improve access to basic health care for everyone, including those with limited incomes and limited access to care, so that diseases such as cancer can be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.
It's because of our commitment to better heath care for all Americans that we're mindful of the 43 million people in our county who lack health insurance.
That's why one of the President's top priorities is an increase in funding for community heath centers. Community health centers provide high quality, community based care to approximately 11 million patients, 4.4 million of whom are uninsured, through a network of more than 3,000 centers in rural and urban areas.
The President has proposed expanding and increasing the number of health center sites by 1,200 by 2006. As a first installment of this multi-year initiative, we propose to increase funding for community health centers by $124 million.
We will also be looking at ways to reform the National Health Service Corps to better target placement of providers in areas experiencing the greatest shortages of heath professionals.
These are significant goals, but also attainable ones. They are important because they will help deliver quality care to people in some of our neediest communities.
The President is also committed to strengthening and modernizing Medicare, in part by adding a prescription drug benefit.
I should note that just last September, Medicare began paying for the routine health care costs of beneficiaries in clinical trials. This will provide a special benefit for older Americans.
But the budget we're proposing goes beyond numbers and programs. It's about innovation and effectiveness and even moral courage.
We can no longer be content with doing things as they've always been done.
That's comfortable, unthreatening and politically safe. It's also irresponsible, shortsighted and self- protecting - exactly the things that are wrong with Washington's way of doing business.
President Bush is here to change the way Washington works. I've gotten to know George W. Bush over time, first as a governor and now as president. He's a person who combines strength with compassion - and common sense with a vision for the future. Because of his leadership, we're going to be able to advance more quickly against the enemy - against cancer.
Many of you have remarkable and moving stories of how you have fought - or are even now fighting - your own war with cancer. As I said at the beginning of my remarks, I appreciate deeply your sharing them with us and applaud your courage in coming forward with them.
We need to persevere until the threat of cancer is much more distant and much less severe. With your help, that's exactly what the President and my colleagues and I at HHS intend to do.
It's wonderful to be with you. The President's cancer panel is doing a tremendous work. Thanks for taking part in this much-needed conference. All the best to each of you.
Now, I'd be happy to answer questions.