HR 745: The Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act of 2009

This is the first bill ever to be introduced that deals solely with pancreatic cancer issues. Such a bill is necessary because nearly 38,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year. Of that 38000, 34000 of those diagnosed will die from the disease.

HR 745 lays out some pretty dramatic and yet relatively unknown statistics about pancreatic cancer. According to the wording of the bill, pancreatic cancer research today is where breast cancer research was in the 1930's - hardly any understanding of the causes, no means of early detection and a survival rate in single numbers.

The bill also cites that very little research funds are allocated towards pancreatic cancer. Less than 2 percent of the Federal funds from the National Cancer Institute are going towards this deadly disease. That is far to low an amount to allow any significant research to be done. In the past 3 years, the Institute has only awarded 5 grants for training and supporting investigations into pancreatic cancer.

HR 745 was introduced in January 2009 by Representative Brown-Waite of Florida and Representative Eshoo from California. There needs to be 215 Congressmen co-sponsoring this bill before it can go to Congress for a vote.

The bill is asking, among other things, that there be more public and physician awareness of pancreatic cancer. It also asks for an initiative into advancing the research with the hopes of raising the mortality rate. The mortality rate is a grim 5 years, yet most pancreatic patients do not live 12 months after diagnoses, others only a few months.

This 17 page bill states some startling facts, and the only people that are even vaguely aware of most of them are pancreatic patients, or the families of people that have died from pancreatic cancer. This bill is of vital importance to help awareness and to institute funds to help raise the awareness, and fund more research of this deadly disease.

Help support this bill and keep it moving through the governmental process by helping spread the word and by asking your state representative to take a stand on this bill and give it their support. Do your research, read the HR 745 Bill and find out for yourself that these are overwhelming facts, and help to educate others on the statistics of pancreatic cancer.

Those of us who have lost loved ones to pancreatic cancer, or who are still fighting this deadly killer know how grim the future looks once that diagnoses is made. We hope, by doing more to educate the public and by asking our State Representatives to support this Bill, there will finally be some thing more available to help those that are stricken with pancreatic cancer in the future.

The Bill is in the first steps of the legislative process. It has been referred to a committee of 59 that will read and deliberate on it. According to Govtrack. Org, the majority of bills never make it out of the Committee. Let's hope we can change that on this bill.

"Pancreatic Cancer: An Agenda for Action" was introduced by the National Cancer Institute in 2001. The report listed 39 recommendations, yet as of this writing, only 5 of them have been acted on. They blame lack of funding, yet statistics show that deaths from pancreatic cancer continue to rise at an alarming rate.

As someone who has lost a loved one to the horrors of pancreatic cancer, I can tell you honestly, that I was unaware of the alarming statistics until my family had to live through them. I can also tell you that I find these statistics unacceptable, and hope my writings will help to educate someone who maybe did not realize just what an awful disease this is, and that very little is known about fighting it, or detecting it early enough to save more lives.

Read HR 745: The Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act of 2009 in its entirety here:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-745