2019 Labor HHS Appropriations Bill Calls For NCI Implemention Of New Pilot Program To Improve Patient Access To Cancer Trials

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The House Appropriations Committee Fiscal Year 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Funding Bill, that is currently up for vote, includes a directive to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to implement "a new pilot initiative to investigate the impact of providing navigation and direct patient expense reimbursement associated with participation in cancer clinical trials on cancer clinical trial enrollment, retention, patient outcomes, and research outcomes, including among underrepresented and minority communities."  Read the language in its entirety here on page 52 of the Labor Report.

The inclusion of the language follows an intensive effort by Lazarex Cancer Foundation with members of congress to bring this problem forward. A bi-partisan letter proposing the report language was submitted to the Appropriations Committee in March 2018. The effort was led by Chairman Pete Sessions and Representative Jamie Raskin and was signed by 12 members of congress. Chairman Tom Cole of the Appropriations Subcommittee worked closely with Chairman Sessions and Lazarex.

"All of us have been touched by cancer, either through a loved one or through the experience of a personal diagnosis," said Chairman Pete Sessions. "Altogether, I want to thank everyone at the NCI for their tremendous efforts and I am happy I was able to play an important role in the process to make this all happen. I look forward to working with my colleagues to continue to support cancer research so that one day we can finally defeat this fast spreading disease and live in a cancer-free world."

Many cancer patients who fail standard treatment are eligible for clinical trials that offer potentially life-saving drugs but aren't aware of that option or must decide between living expenses and hope. Why? For a variety of reasons, doctors do not refer patients to trials, and clinical trial sites are often inconveniently located making travel to them both difficult and financially burdensome.

Lazarex Founder Dana Dornsife says, "We are thrilled to finally be making progress with this important issue and grateful to the members of congress who stepped up. If we don't have fully enrolled clinical trials with a diverse pool of patients, a cure is not possible. Clinical trials are the pathway to new treatments. But when you have only 3% of cancer patients enrolling in clinical trials and about 50% of clinical trials failing because they can't enroll enough patients, we have a broken system. That's why Lazarex took this issue to Congress."

Lazarex is the only non-profit in the United States that assists patients with finding clinical trials and reimburses them for the out of pocket travel costs involved in getting to those clinical trials. In its 11 years, Lazarex has helped fund more than 3,500 patients in clinical trials. Earlier this year, at the urging of Congress working with Lazarex, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed its official guidance, issuing new language allowing pharmaceutical companies to reimburse patients for travel costs to get to clinical trials, although not all trial sponsors do this.

SOURCE Lazarex Cancer Foundation