Childhood Cancer In Focus In FY2022 House Appropriations Bill
Steve Wosahla is the Chief Executive Officer of Children’s Cancer Cause
The House Appropriations Committee today released its reports accompanying the fiscal year 2022 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Notably, the Committee included three sections of report language that the Alliance For Childhood Cancer, a coalition of 21 member organizations including Children’s Cancer Cause, specifically requested in our FY22 Labor-HHS appropriations request letter this year. The reports will be considered at tomorrow’s full Committee markup which will be webcast live and linked from here.
The bill puts pediatric cancer in focus with funding for the following initiatives:
$30 million allocated for the continuation of the Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research (STAR) Act;
$50 million allocated for the second year of the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI); and
$12.6 million to support pediatric research as authorized by the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act
Children’s Cancer Cause was also pleased to see that the bill also provides a total of $49 billion for National Institutes of Health (NIH), an increase of $6.5 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level. This includes $3 billion to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) with cancer being an area of focus for the new agency. The bill also includes $6.9 billion, an increase of $432 million above the FY 2021 enacted level, for the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
“The development of new therapies is important to finding a cure for childhood cancers, many of which have not seen new therapies in decades,” the report notes. “The Committee commends NCI for its support of the establishment of the National Childhood Cancer Registry as a part of the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative. Data sets for childhood cancers are often small and spread out across institutions or aggregated into State-wide or Federal registries where the particulars of incidence rate by cancer are lost. The Committee urges NCI to use available resources to ensure all relevant data needed to assist childhood cancer researchers in developing innovative treatments for childhood cancer are made available through the National Childhood Cancer Registry and other integrated CCDI programs.”
Funding provided this year will allow NCI to continue to conduct and support childhood cancer survivorship research as authorized in the STAR Act. The STAR Act, enacted in 2018, is the most comprehensive childhood cancer bill ever taken up by Congress. It expands opportunities for childhood cancer research, improve efforts to identify and track childhood cancer incidences and enhance the quality of life for childhood cancer survivors. The funding for FY22 will also allow the expansion of existing biorepositories for childhood cancer patients enrolled in NCI-sponsored clinical trials Additionally the Committee calls on NCI to ensure that all applicable study sections, committees, advisory groups, and panels at NCI include one or more qualified pediatric oncologists.
“The Committee recognizes that pediatric cancer is a leading cause of death among children and is still poorly understood,” it writes in allocating research funds as part of the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program. “Childhood cancer also has lasting negative health effects on children who do survive due to the high levels of toxicity associated with treatment. The Committee acknowledges that the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program enables researchers to uncover new insights into the biology of childhood disease. Since its inception, Kids First has initiated the Gabriella Miller Kids First Data Resource Center, which is a comprehensive data resource for research and patient communities meant to advance discoveries. The Committee recognizes the progress that the Program has made towards understanding childhood cancer and disease.”
The Committee also includes $3 billion to establish the Advanced Projects Research Agency for Health (ARPA–H), as proposed in the President’s budget request. Modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), ARPA–H will invest in large high-risk, high-reward research projects that have the potential to achieve breakthroughs in the treatment of diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
We look forward to providing further updates.
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