Cancer research at 'crisis point,' advocates say

Budget sequestration would severely curtail federal efforts to understand and fight cancer, advocates warned in a congressional briefing Tuesday.

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the latest group to decry looming budget cuts that will take place on March 1 unless Congress acts.

The across-the-board spending reductions are meant to punish lawmakers for failing to reach a large deficit reduction deal. 

Advocates have pushed for months to highlight how cuts would hamper federal programs, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which was the focus of Tuesday's briefing.

"It is imperative that funding for medical research through the NIH be regarded as a priority investment for our nation,” said Jon Retzlaff, managing director of the AACR's Office of Science Policy and Government Affairs.

"The frustrating reality is that our ability to deliver on the promise of science to patients is in great jeopardy due to both a decade of stagnant budgets and the looming threat of sequestration. We have reached a crisis point."

Sequestration would cut the NIH budget by 5.1 percent. United for Medical Research, an advocacy coalition, has estimated that the spending axe could result in the loss of 402,000 jobs and $57.8 billion in U.S. economic output.

An official with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) said Tuesday that only about 15 percent of new grant applications receive funding.

Douglas Lowy, deputy director of the NCI, cautioned that government-funded research "is the main engine of discovery that will lead to future breakthroughs in the fight against cancer."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Tuesday that Democrats will unveil a legislative package to replace the sequester by the end of the week.

Reid's Republican counterpart, Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), dismissed the move and predicted that the sequester would take effect.

"The majority is going to offer a proposal. I anticipate that we will have an alternative proposal. That however doesn’t lead to a solution. That just leads to a couple of votes," McConnell said.

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