Thank You For Participating In The Fight Against Prostate Cancer In Washington

Thank you for participating in the
Fight Against Prostate Cancer in Washington State

A Letter To Washington D.C. For Funding

The letter below is the result of a collaborative effort among prostate cancer support groups within the State of Washington and beyond. Participants include the Washington State affiliates of Us Too, Man-to-Man and the American Cancer Society along with the Washington State Prostate Cancer Coalition. The purpose of this letter is to solicit support from key members of our Washington State Representatives in Washington D.C., as-well-as the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to obtain an appropriation of 200 million dollars for the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research and Clinical Trials programs.

The letter will be sent to Senator Maria Cantwell, Senator Patty Murray, Senator Ted Stevens (Alaska), Representative Norm Dicks and Representative Dave Reichert.

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Prostate Cancer is a family disease.
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Senator Murray, Senator Cantwell, Senator Stevens, Representative Dicks, and Representative Reichert, I am writing to request your leadership in obtaining an appropriation of $200,000,000 for the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research and Clinical Trials programs. In 1998 the Defense Department Prostate Cancer Research and Clinical Trials programs stated they could efficiently use $200 million. For the last three years, Congress has funded the programs at $85 million. This has delayed progress within the program. The DOD has such little funding in this area that researchers have been advised by their mentors to not take the time to apply for research grants. Unfortunately, this has led to a further deterioration of the clinical trials program. Holding the prostate cancer research and clinical trials program to $85 million is particularly disturbing and inequitable. As you may be aware, the number of deaths from breast cancer and prostate cancer are similar, at 30,000 to 40,000 each year. Research on breast cancer has been funded by DOD to $150 million dollars over the last three years. As 85% of the members of the armed services are males, I would assume that the emphasis would be on prostate cancer - the cancer with the greater impact on the Department of Defense. Certainly it is inequitable to fund PCa at only 50% of the level of breast cancer. I look forward to hearing about your leadership on this issue. Thank you!

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