I am troubled by Elaine Root’s claim (Your Views, Oct. 11) that I’m indifferent to breast cancer because I oppose a bill that would politicize cancer research. As a two-time cancer survivor and practicing physician who has family members with breast cancer, I am dedicated to sound cancer research. The legislation (S. 757) Root supports is a misguided attempt by politicians in Washington to micromanage cancer research at the National Institutes of Health and undermine NIH’s scientific and competitive peer review process.
Everyone with cancer deserves research that can save the most lives with the best use of research dollars — whether it’s an adult with breast cancer or a 4-year-old with leukemia. When Congress picks winners and losers on the basis of politics, not science, all cancer victims suffer.
NIH already has the authority to study possible environmental causes of breast cancer and is conducting that research to the tune of $100 million per year. NIH is also spending twice as much on breast cancer research as every other form of cancer.
Unfortunately, the National Breast Cancer Coalition rejected a compromise that would have encouraged, but not required, this research. Suggesting that I want to see women “drop dead” of breast cancer, as the president of this group has said, is not negotiating in good faith. It’s cheap, partisan demagoguery.
