Peer-Review Prostate Cancer Research Program

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
PEER-REVIEW PROSTATE CANCER RESEARCH PROGRAM

Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Department of Defense, DOD, Peer-Review Prostate Cancer Research Program.

No one in this Chamber has been spared the tragedy of cancer taking the life of a family member or friend. Many of those lives, in fact, have been taken by prostate cancer, as it is the leading cause of cancer deaths in men. Because baby boomers are entering the risk age for prostate cancer at a rate of one every seven seconds, the 2 million men currently impacted by the disease are increasing at about every 8 percent per year. Still, lives can be saved and finding a cure can be accelerated.

The DOD Peer Review Prostate Cancer Research Program continues to prove to be a success and many new treatments to end the pain and suffering due to prostate cancer are on the horizon. That is why I support a $100 million earmark for fiscal year 2005.

The return on this investment is well worth it. In recent years, the DOD Breast Cancer Program funded groundbreaking research, such as the discovery of the drug Herceptin, which prolongs the lives of women afflicted with a particularly aggressive type of advanced breast cancer. In fact, Herceptin when used appropriately with chemotherapy increases the chances of survival by about 33 percent.

Those breakthroughs are possible in prostate cancer. This disease needs a Herceptin-like drug, and it is possible with adequate and fair funding for the DOD Peer Review Prostate Cancer Research Program.

This one-of-a-kind research program uses an innovative granting structure that brings scientists and consumers together to make key policy decisions about prostate cancer research. Since its inception eight years ago, this far-reaching, influential program has literally changed the way prostate cancer research is done. It has become a model that other research programs have sought to replicate.

The program has funded two key research grants, the Prostate Cancer Consortium Awards, which could help us unravel prostate cancer's challenge. These grants cover a 3-year period and are designed to produce an intervention-drug, device or procedure-to bring us all closer to finding a cure for this devastating disease.

This program is not only a shining example of streamlining effective research; it is an outstanding model for best business practices. Every penny spent by this program is accounted for at a public meeting every 2 years. Ninety percent of the funds go directly to research. This kind of efficiency and prudence in spending is unheard of in some of our Nation's best businesses and charities let alone other federally funded research programs and agencies.

According to reports of this business conscious program, the DOD Peer Review Prostate Cancer Research Program cannot conduct human clinical trials without the earmark funding of $100 million for fiscal year 2005. The program must help treat men, not just mice.

Unfortunately, the language in the Senate Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005 threatens both the funding and unique structure of the Prostate Cancer Peer Review Research Program. The Senate bill combines all of the congressionally directed cancer research programs into one account and reduces the total funding available to all.

Because the Senate version lumps all the cancer programs into one pot, rather than maintaining separate earmarks, the proposal will have multiple, negative outcomes. As written, the Senate bill dismantles the unique accountability over research and seriously threatens the consumer-scientist driven integrity of the DOD prostate cancer research program. The proposal relieves the government of accountability while forcing cancer groups to compete with one another for reduced funding. And, a particularly dangerous component of the proposal transfers funding to other cancer projects that are not recommended by a scientific peer reviewed process

As the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005 goes to conference, I urge my colleagues to support the language passed in the House and preserve this critical program for prostate cancer research.