Is the Government Spending Enough to Fight Cancer?

Jan. 17, 2007 — -- On the news that cancer deaths are down for the second straight year, the Bush administration is touting its role in increasing the cancer research budget through a fact sheet issued by the White House today.

According to the statement, federal funding to fight cancer has been on the rise.

In particular, the administration says that since 2001, federal cancer funding has increased 24 percent for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 26 percent for the National Institutes of Health, and that the administration invested more than $5 billion in cancer research last year.

Cancer researchers tell a different story, though.

-- Dr. Bruce Chabner, clinical director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center

-- Dr. Len Zwelling, vice president for research administration at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center