Letter: More research needed to find cause for cancer

Saturday, May 19, 2007 | 6:51 a.m.

I read with interest the Sun's May 15 editorial "Preventing cancer," about the potential link between chemicals and cancer, which concludes: "... all the more reason that more research should be commissioned in this area." The National Breast Cancer Coalition couldn't agree more.

An important piece of legislation before Congress, the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act, (BCERA, Senate Bill 579/ House Resolution 1157) would provide strategic research around breast cancer and the environment. For eight years the National Breast Cancer Coalition has worked tirelessly for its passage. NBCC is especially grateful to Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, one of the lead sponsors of the bill from the beginning. This year he has committed to use his status as majority leader to enact BCERA into law. In the House, two of the 221 co-sponsors include Nevada Reps. Shelley Berkley and Jon Porter.

The findings just released offer one of the many tools researchers need to address complex and understudied questions around the causes of breast cancer. BCERA provides much more: a national research strategy and a competitive, peer-reviewed grant program for the National Institutes of Health to fund multi disciplinary, multi-institutional research in collaboration with consumers and community-based organizations.

Without increasing our federal investment in this research we will never find the answers to the question of what causes breast cancer. We will never learn how to prevent this terrible disease that affects us all. There is no better way to address this issue for women and their families, in Nevada and everywhere in this country.

Fran Visco, Washington