PHILADELPHIA—In its Cancer Progress Report 2013, which was release today, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) highlighted recent advances in cancer research and underscored the need for continued national funding of cancer research and biomedical science.
The report’s authors wrote, “Cancer research efforts have spurred the translation of scientific discoveries into new and better ways to prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat cancer. These advances are contributing to the rise in the number of people who are surviving longer and living fuller lives after their cancer diagnoses.”
Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, who is the director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and one of the AACR report’s authors, said issues affecting cancer research funding may slow the pace of scientific discovery.
“Our nation’s investment in cancer research has greatly advanced our understanding of cancer’s basic biological processes, enabling us to detect many cancers earlier than before and to use treatments that precisely attack their molecular causes,” explains Anderson, who is also the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “The ongoing uncertainty of research funding, however, stands to impede the pace of discovery, to deter the best and brightest young scientists from pursuing a career in cancer research, and to result in more families losing loved ones to this dreaded disease. It is critical, as such, that we continue to make cancer research funding a priority because we know firsthand that the discoveries made in the labs today will lead to better and more effective cancer treatments in the future.”
A copy of the AACR report is available online, www.cancerprogressreport.org.
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About Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteDana-Farber Cancer Institute is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. It provides adult cancer care with Brigham and Women’s Hospital as Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and it provides pediatric care with Boston Children’s Hospital as Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dana-Farber is the top ranked cancer center in New England, according to U.S. News & World Report, and one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health grant funding. Follow Dana-Farber on Facebook: and on Twitter.
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