NDCA

We are closer to having a national childhood cancer registry:

June 12, 2008 (Bethesda, MD) - United States House of Representatives
passed H.R. 1553, the “Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer
Act,” which promises to significantly increase federal investment
into childhood cancer research.

The bill authorizes $30 million annually over five years, providing
funding for collaborative
pediatric cancer clinical trials research, to create a
population-based national childhood cancer
database, and to further improve public awareness and communication
regarding available
treatments and research for children with cancer and their families.
The bill passed the House by a vote of 416 to 0.

During markup of the legislation, the bill was renamed the Caroline
Pryce Walker Conquer
Childhood Cancer Act of 2008, in memory of Caroline Pryce Walker, daughter of
Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-OH), who succumbed to neuroblastoma in
1999 at age nine.

Companion legislation in the United States Senate (S.911), sponsored
by Senator Jack Reed (D-
RI), cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP)
Committee unanimously
in November, 2007. The Senate version of the Conquer Childhood
Cancer Act currently has 63
co-sponsors; a full Senate floor vote on the bill is expected this summer.

Here is a profile of Julie Ross, the Epidemiology Chair for the
Children’s Oncology Group, who has developed a prototype for a
national childhood cancer
registry:http://www.cancer. umn.edu/research /profiles/ ross.html