The Prostate Cancer Roundtable has announced an update to its policy agenda for 2013, concurrent with the start of the work of the new Congress here in the USA.
The full media release about the update to the policy agenda, can be found on line. It is currently being delivered to every single member of the House and the Senate in the new Congress.
The core of the Roundtable’s policy agenda for 2013 is as follows:
- The Roundtable continues to seek an increase in the appropriation to support the successful work of the Prostate Cancer Research Program within the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program – from its current $80 million to $120 million per year.
- We continue to work with the broader cancer community to support increased federal funding for cancer research through the annual appropriations process for the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control.
- Within the annual appropriation for the National Cancer Institute, we seek an increase in the current funding of $288 million for basic and translational prostate cancer research to $400 million per year.
- We seek passage of a bill to create an Office on Men’s Health within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that can mirror the 20-year successes of the Office on Women’s Health established in 1991.
- We support legislative, research, and educational efforts needed to effectively combat – and ideally to eliminate — the epidemic of prostate cancer among African American men.
- We seek the establishment of a Prostate Cancer Scientific Advisory Board for the Office of the Chief Scientist at the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), with the goal of accelerating the real-time sharing of the latest research data and the movement of new medicines into clinical practice in the best interests of patients.
- We seek revisions to the decision-making processes of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to ensure appropriate input from representatives of patient advocacy groups, specialty medical groups, and other federal agencies that have expertise in each area of preventive services under review.
This policy agenda has been approved by all members of the Prostate Cancer Roundtable, including Prostate Cancer International, which is the parent organization of The “New” Prostate Cancer InfoLink.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: advocacy, Congress, policy, Roundable |
THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK 
May I suggest including a prostate cancer patient component to give this Roundtable discussion credibility with all of the stakeholders. Otherwise the intent of this panel will sound suspiciously similar to Congressman Darrell Issa all male panel on female contraception and not letting Sandra Fluke speak, questioning her qualifications.
With current controversy on PSA testing as well as which treatment is preferred/most effective, prostate cancer patients past and present, certainly deserve a real time voice in any discourse.
Dear Elucidated1:
Several of the representatives of the patient organizations that attend the meetings of the Roundtable are actually prostate cancer patients (including men who were diagnosed with early stage disease and show every sign of complete elimination of their cancer and at least two others who have progressive forms of the disease). Other representatives include spouses of men who died from metastatic disease. I don’t know where you are getting the idea that this group doesn’t include a patient component.
Sorry, Sitemaster, but I really have no clue how this roundtable group operates. It’s all new to me. I’ll have to look for the collective discourse that these patients provide as well as the advisory boards post recommendations.