Saying everyone is touched by cancer including himself U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback has introduced a bill he hopes will put an emphasis on surviving cancer.

“This bill represents the first step toward the goal of making cancer deaths rare by the year 2015,” the Kansas Republican senator said Wednesday.

¢Brownback explains his bill (40 seconds, 408KB MP3 file)¢See details of the bill

Brownback discussed the bill, “The National Cancer Act of 2002,” with Kansas reporters during a telephone news conference from Washington, D.C. The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Judd Greg, R-N.H.

The bill, a follow-up to the 1971 National Cancer Act, would refocus the national effort toward detection and treatment.

The American Cancer Society estimates in Kansas there will be 5,300 cancer deaths and 12,300 new cancer cases diagnosed in 2002.

“There’s not a family that I know of that somebody either in that family or very close to members of that family has had cancer or has died from cancer,” Brownback said.

“My dad’s had colon cancer. I’ve had cancer of melanoma,” he said. “This is a dreaded disease and it affects everybody in this state and country.”

Brownback said his own cancer was treated in 1995 and he has not had a recurrence.

“An estimated 1.2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in the year 2002,” Brownback said. “And over half a million Americans will die from cancer. The bill that we put forward will revise the 1971 act with the goal of making cancer survivorship the rule and cancer deaths rare by 2015.”

The legislation’s goal is to have identified by 2015, a number of different cancers, such as breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer, for which there is a treatment and a cure.

Brownback said he has met with a number of cancer experts, researchers and officials with the American Cancer Society about the bill. He also co-chairs the congressional cancer caucus with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

“I fully believe that by the year 2015, this is an achievable objective of survivorship in dealing with cancer,” Brownback.

To achieve the goal will require focusing public health organizations and research here and getting information disseminated in clinical trials at an earlier stage, he said.

“It’s going to be a comprehensive approach of early detection, high quality of treatment and care for us to be able to solve this problem,” he said.

Brownback said he doesn’t have a cost for the legislation, although much of it is already funded and involves reorganizing the nation’s cancer research and treatment efforts.

Brownback said he met Wednesday morning with American cycling champion Lance Armstrong, who survived testicular cancer and won the Tour de France four times to talk about the bill. He also planned to attend cancer-related activities scheduled Wednesday at the White House.