Tell Congress
Send the email (shown below) to the members of Congress and officials at the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes for Health. Fields with asterisks (*) are required.
Text of Email to Congress
After more than 20 years of Breast Cancer Awareness Months, people in this country are still incredibly confused about some of the basic facts of breast cancer. A recent poll by the advocacy group Breast Cancer Action found that most Americans (74%) mistakenly think breast cancer that remains restricted to the breast can be fatal.
The reality is that only breast cancer that spreads to the vital organs is life threatening. But doctors don’t have the tools to tell a woman with certainty at the time of diagnosis whether or not her breast cancer will spread and become life-threatening.
For the sake of the 200,000 women who are diagnosed with this dreadful disease every year, it is time to prioritize research—and funding for research—that will enable doctors to answer a woman’s most basic questions upon diagnosis—“Will I die of this?” and “What should I do next?” As federal funding for cancer research is in danger of being cut, this is a perfect time to refocus and reprioritize. Only more focused research will allow doctors to predict the spread of breast cancer, whether it will become life threatening, and what the best course of treatment is for each woman.
[Your optional message added here]
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your State]
This letter will be sent to leadership of U.S. Senate and House subcommittees on Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institutes of Health:
U.S. House of Representatives
Honorable Frank Pallone
Chairman, Health Subcommittee
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. Senate
Honorable Edward Kennedy
Chairman, Health Subcommittee
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
National Cancer Institute
John Niederhuber
Director, National Cancer Institute
National Institutes of Health
Elias Zerhouni
Director, National Institutes of Health