Letters to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health, and Human Services

March 23rd, 2023

The Honorable Robert Aderholt
Chair
Appropriations Subcommittee on
Labor, Health & Human Services
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
Appropriations Subcommittee on
Labor, Health & Human Services
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chair Aderholt and Ranking Member DeLauro:

The undersigned childhood cancer organizations, consisting of patient advocacy groups, healthcare professionals and scientific organizations, represent millions of Americans who care deeply about childhood cancer. As such, we appreciate your tremendous ongoing leadership in Congress to make childhood cancer a national child health priority.

As Congress considers the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, we ask you to consider our funding priorities as well as the included report language related to childhood cancer.

NIH and NCI Funding
We join with the leading national cancer organizations in requesting at least $50.924 billion for National Institutes of Health (NIH) in FY24, including $9.988 billion for cancer research at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Childhood Cancer Funding: Each year in the U.S. approximately 16,000 children are diagnosed with cancer. Approximately 1 in 263 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with cancer before their 20th birthday. Annually there are more than 413,000 cases of childhood cancer worldwide. Unfortunately, cancer remains the most common cause of death by disease for children in America.

We have made significant advances to develop better treatments for the most common forms of childhood cancer. However, for many other types, progress is limited, and for too many children there is no available cure. By the age of 50, more than 99% of survivors have had a chronic health problem, and 96% have experienced a severe or life-threatening condition caused by the toxicity of the treatment that initially saved their life, including brain damage, loss of hearing and sight, heart disease, secondary cancers, learning disabilities, infertility and more. By the time a child in treatment for cancer today reaches the age of 50, we want these statistics to be far less grim.

Therefore, we ask for the following funding that is specific to Childhood Cancer in the FY24 Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill:

• Childhood Cancer STAR Act – $30 million, the same funding level as last year, including $4 million in funding for childhood cancer surveillance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better identify and track incidences of child, adolescent, and young adult cancer in more states.
• Childhood Cancer Data Initiative – $50 million, the same funding level as last year.

Thank you for your consideration and continued support in the fight against childhood cancer.

Should you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Sarah Milberg, Co-Chair of the Alliance for Childhood Cancer, at smilberg@allianceforchildhoodcancer.org, or Dr. Michael Link, Co-Chair of the Alliance for Childhood Cancer, at mlink@stanford.edu.

Sincerely,

The Alliance for Childhood Cancer
American Association for Cancer Research
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
American Childhood Cancer Organization
American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation
Association for Clinical Oncology
Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses
Association of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers
Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation
Children’s Cancer Cause
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation
National Brain Tumor Society
Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation
Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research
St. Baldrick’s Foundation

2318 Mill Road Alexandria, VA 22314 | alliance@asco.org | www.allianceforchildhoodcancer.org