It will be noted that in the Bureau of the Budget allowance the only increase over the current level of support recommended for fiscal 1956 over fiscal 1955 is in "Direct operations" and "Research." This increase is due to the additional number of beds available for cancer patients at the research center at Bethesda. We wholly concur in the necessity for providing for this increased operation. The amount suggested for research projects to be given as grants to outside organizations is held at the same level as for 1955, namely $8,160,000. This would allow for no raising whatsoever in the level of research activity in private institutions. In fact, it might well lower such level due to the increased cost of items which are necessary in a research program and particularly in view of the imminent change in overhead allowance from 8 percent to a level substantially higher. As stated above in this presentation, many of the research facilities made possible by the earlier construction appropriation are just now coming into full productivity. This, coupled with the continuing supply of young scientists becoming available from the fellowship training programs and the increasing urgency of the cancer problem, makes us urge strongly that a substantial increase in the amount available for research projects in independent institutions in the States be made available. The figure of $12,285,000 which is recommended by the American Cancer Society is based upon its judgment confirmed by the National Advisory Cancer Council whose responsibility it is to review and approve, subject to the availability of funds, applications received from independent research institutions. The House of Representatives, in its action on this bill earlier in the year, provided the same $22,328,000 for the National Cancer Institute that was requested by the Bureau of the Budget. We respectfully urge that the Senate increase this figure to a minimum of $26,573,000. With this increase we can more fully exploit the advances made in the cancer field in surgery, radiation, and particularly in chemotherapy. The National Advisory Cancer Council has specifically recommended as follows: The sum of $4,500,000 additional research grant funds in fiscal 1956 to: (1) Allow for $3 million expansion in chemotherapy, the major portion of which will be utilized for expanding existing screening programs and to initiate approximately an equal number of new screening programs. (2) Allow for a $1,500,000 expansion in support of basic research in order that appropriate proportions in the various facets of research can be maintained. The doctors who will testify this morning: Cornelius Rhoads, of New York; Sidney Farber, of Boston; and Charles Cameron, of the American Cancer Society, will present to you the medical evidence of these advances and the expectations we have that one day they will lead us to the discovery of the cause and cure of this devastating disease. JAMES S. ADAMS, Chairman, Research Committee, American Cancer Society, Inc. NOTE: AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY RESEARCH FUNDS ARE THOSE ALLOCATED FROM CAMPAIGN FUNDS, STATISTICAL RESEARCH SECTION, MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY NATIONAL ADVISORY CANCER COUNCIL Dr. Joseph C. Aub, Massachuetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass. Mr. Elmer H. Bobst, president, Warner-Hudnut Co., 113 West 18th Street, New York, N. Y. Dr. W. Edward Chamberlain, Temple University Hospital, 3401 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Dr. Sidney Farber, director of research, Children's Cancer Research Foundation, 35 Binney Street, Boston, Mass. Mr. Donald E. Johnson, publisher, Flint News-Advertiser, 211 East Court Street, Flint, Mich. Mrs. Mary W. (Albert D.) Lasker, Chrysler Building, New York, N. Y. Mr. Hugh G. Payne, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, 825 Northeast 13th Street, Oklahoma City, Okla. Dr. Isidor S. Ravdin, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, department of surgery, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Dr. H. P. Rusch, director of McArdle Memorial Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Dr. W. M. Stanley, Virus Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Calif. Mrs. Marguerite P. Thompson, 2325 13th Street, Boulder, Colo. Mr. Ellis T. Woolfolk, Box 162, Memphis, Tenn. EX OFFICIO MEMBERS Vice Adm. Joel T. Boone, Chief Medical Director, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Veterans' Administration, Washington, D. C. Dr. Frank B. Berry, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (Health and Medical), Department of Defense, Washington, D. C. Alternates Dr. G. R. Calender, Chief, Pathology Division, Veterans' Administration, Washington, D. C. Brig. Gen. Elbert DeCoursey (MC), Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, room 112, 7th and Independence Avenues SW., Washington, D. C. LIAISON REPRESENTATIVES Surgeon General of the Air Force Col. Donald S. Wenger, USAF (MC), Department of the Air Force, Headquarters, United States Air Force, Washington, D. C. Surgeon General of the Army Brig. Gen. Elbert DeCoursey (MC), Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, room 112, 7th and Independence Avenues, Washington, D. C. Surgeon General of the Navy Rear Adm. W. Dana (MC) USN, Assistant Chief Bureau of Research and Medicine, Military Specialties, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Department of Navy, Washington, D. C. Atomic Energy Commission Dr. John Bugher, 1901 Constitution Avenue, Washington, D. C. Dr. CAMERON. Now may we present Dr. Farber, Senator Hill? Dr. CAMERON. I do not think I need to tell you that Dr. Farber is professor of pathology, Harvard Medical School at the Children's Hospital and scientific director of the Children's Cancer Research Foundation in Boston. ' CHILDREN'S CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION, BOSTON, MASS. STATEMENT OF DR. SIDNEY FARBER GENERAL STATEMENT Dr. FARBER. I am very happy to have the privilege of joining my colleagues, Dr. Rhoads and Dr. Cameron, in speaking in behalf of the recommendation of the American Cancer Society, with certain modifications which I would like to bring to your attention when I discuss some aspects of the question Senator Thye asked some moments ago. Before beginning, may I first speak as a doctor interested in disease and the sick? The plea we are making today in behalf of cancer should in no way imply that we would recommend support for cancer in preference to mental health or neurological disease or microbiological problems and so on. There are pressing problems in all of these fields. GRAVE DEFICIT IN RESEARCH FUNDS As a member of the National Advisory Cancer Council, I have had the opportunity to learn that there is a grave deficit in research funds in all the areas in the National Institutes of Health Programs. In the Microbiological Institute, for example, I am told, that in this one field there will be a $2 million deficit in the grant funds available in infectious diseases alone for grant requests regarded as worthy of support by the study sections and councils. May I therefore respectfully call to your attention the needs in fields other than cancer? And may I also mention that from what is learned in the field of microbiology, or even in the field of psychiatric research, which we heard discussed a little while ago, there will be principles which can be applied to the field of cancer, just as what we have learned in cancer research will certainly further progress in other fields. May I show a few lantern slides in addition to the vivid motion picture demonstration which Dr. Rhoads gave us of some activities in cancer research in Sloan-Kettering Institute. Such research activities can be multiplied in varying amounts by the many laboratories in the country whose work has been made possible through appropriations from the Congress through the National Cancer Institute, from grants through the American Cancer Society, the Damon Runyon fund, and from many private sources. I mentioned that research in infectious disease such as that through the Microbiological Institute may be of great help to cancer. I brought here one lantern slide to illustrate one of the very great advances, in my opinion, which has come to us within the last year, from the Microbiological Institute of the National Institutes of Health. This is the growth of human cancer cells in a special medium. Dr. Rhoads mentioned the growth of cancer cells in tissue culture when he showed you his test tubes. Dr. Harry Eagle, Chief of the section of experimental theraflux in the Microbiological Institute, announced just last month that he is able to grow human cells from cancer or normal tissue in a medium, the exact constituency of which is almost completely known. We have employed Dr. Eagle's discovery, and have already confirmed his observation. |