North American Brain Tumor Coalition Outlines Brain Tumor Research Funding Priorities

April 8, 2010

In a statement submitted to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, North American Brain Tumor Coalition Chair Joseph Fay outlined the Coalition’s fiscal year 2011 priorities for funding brain tumor research.

The Coalition endorsed the recommendation of the biomedical research community that National Institutes of Health funding be boosted to $35 billion in fiscal year 2011 and outlined specific brain tumor funding priorities that should be funded from that total.

In his statement, Mr. Fay urged a long-term commitment to basic, translational, and clinical research on brain tumors but also reminded the subcommittees of the urgent need for new brain tumor treatments and the necessity to accelerate the development of new therapies (more...)

Posted in Advocacy Positions, Brain Tumor Research, General News, Headlines

NABTC Applauds CMS Action to Improve Access to Clinical Trials

March 16, 2010

The North American Brain Tumor Coalition joined others in the patient advocacy community in commending action by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to remove barriers to Medicare beneficiaries’ participation in clinical trials.

Although there has been a policy for Medicare payment of routine patient care costs incurred in clinical trials since 2000, the policy does not include adequate protections for Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. MA enrollees who participate in trials out of their MA plan have been required to pay out-of-network cost-sharing for the routine patient care costs of trials. Most of these patients, who do not have supplemental insurance, have found those costs unaffordably high and have declined to (more...)

Posted in Advocacy Positions, Brain Tumor Research

Obama Administration Boosts NIH Funding in FY 2011 Budget Proposal

February 7, 2010

On February 1, 2010, the Obama Administration released its proposed budget for fiscal year 2011, including a boost of $1 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This budget implements the President’s pledge to impose an overall freeze in domestic discretionary, eliminating or cutting certain programs to permit increases for others.

In its press release announcing its budget proposal, the Department of Health and Human Services HHS) said that the $1 billion increase in NIH funding, to a total of $32.2 billion, will support innovative basic and clinical research projects. According to HHS, “This effort will be guided by NIH’s five areas of exceptional research opportunities: supporting genomics and other high throughput technologies; translating basic science into (more...)

Posted in Brain Tumor Research, General News, Spending Bills

National Institutes of Health Announces Identification of Subtypes of Glioblastoma Multiforme

February 7, 2010

In a January 19, 2010, press release, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the publication of a study by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network identifying four distinct molecular subtypes of glioblasoma multiforme (GBM). These findings were heralded as pointing the way toward more personalized approaches to treatment of GBM patients. The research team for TCGA is a collaborative effort funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

The NIH release stated, “Although the findings do not affect current clinical practice, the researchers said the results may lead to more personalized approaches to treating groups of GBM patients based on their genomic alterations. The study, published Jan. 19, (more...)

Posted in Brain Tumor Research, General News

NABTC Urges Senate Approval of Brown-Hutchison Clinical Trials Amendment

December 16, 2009

The North American Brain Tumor Coalition is urging Senators to approve the Brown-Hutchison amendment to require insurance coverage of clinical trials. The bipartisan amendment, sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and offered as an amendment to the health reform bill, would require insurance and health plans to pay for the routine patient care costs that are incurred by patients who enroll in clinical trials. The amendment would ensure that patients enjoy insurance coverage for care in trials that is comparable to the coverage they would enjoy outside a trial.

The Senate is attempting to finish its work on health reform before Christmas Day, so efforts to advance the clinical trials amendment must be (more...)

Posted in Advocacy Positions, Brain Tumor Research, Health Care Reform

NABTC Presses for More Funds for NIH and for a Restoration of Funding for the Adult Brain Tumor Consortium

April 22, 2009

President Obama and Congress provided a major boost to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the biomedical researchers who depend on NIH funding by including in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or stimulus package, more than $10 billion for NIH. This funding includes contruction funds for NIH and construction funds for extramural institutions along with money for biomedical research and comparative effectiveness research. Of the $10 billion total, approximately $8.2 billion will be distributed in grants to extramural researchers.

The NABTC applauds this action, which comes after four years of virtually static funding for NIH. During this period of time, research budgets were cut and new projects were slowed or stalled. Although the stimulus (more...)

Posted in Action Items, Advocacy Positions, Brain Tumor Action Week, Brain Tumor Research

Brain Tumor Care and Cures Act of 2009: An Advocates’ Plan for Enhancing Brain Tumor Treatments

April 22, 2009

The North American Brain Tumor Coalition seeks to advance the Brain Tumor Care and Cures Act, a draft bill that would authorize programs and activities to improve brain tumor treatments. NABTC advocates include individuals with brain tumors, family members and friends of those diagnosed with brain tumors, caregivers, and physicians, nurses, and basic researchers. The experience of these advocates related to brain tumors is broad and deep, and they relied on this experience in drafting the Brain Tumor Care and Cures Act.

The bill includes initiatives that brain tumor advocates believe will accelerate the development of new brain tumor treatments and improve access to care by brain tumor patients. The brain tumor research task is so (more...)

Posted in Action Items, Advocacy Positions, Brain Tumor Action Week, Brain Tumor Research

ACT NOW to Urge Full Funding of the BT Consortium

January 7, 2009

Brain tumor advocates began the new year by petitioning the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to reconsider a preliminary decision that would slash the funding for the Adult Brain Tumor Consortium by approximately one-half. Advocates urged the NCI Director to reverse his decision, which they believe could threaten the viability and effectiveness of the Consortium. The Phase I and Phase II brain tumor clinical trials group is being asked to meet ambitious research goals — of critical importance to brain tumor patients and researchers — with one-half of the budget originally promised to it.

The North American Brain Tumor Coalition is now shifting its efforts to the United States Congress, asking elected officials to communicate to NCI regarding this funding (more...)

Posted in Action Items, Advocacy Positions, Brain Tumor Research

Senators Specter and Harkin Seek to Boost NIH Funding

July 24, 2008

Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced a bill on July 16, 2008, to make emergency supplemental appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The bill, S. 3272, would appropriate $5.2 billion for NIH for the fiscal year that ends on September 30, 2008. Of the total of $5.2 billion, $1.2 billion would be provided to the National Cancer Institute and the remaining $4.0 to the remaining institutes at NIH.

In introducing the bill, Senator Specter decried the recent stagnation in NIH funding. He said, “This funding decline has disrupted the flow of research progress, not just for today, but for years to come. The problem is that an entire generation of research (more...)

Posted in Brain Tumor Research, General News