) photo by ThinkProgress

The annual scientific meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research took a little lunch break on Monday, April 8th in Washington, D.C., while the attendees streamed outside to join a crowd of several thousand gathered across the street for a loud street rally.

“When [Congress] sees a grassroots movement rising up from doctors, from scientists, from advocates, and patients, you become impossible to ignore,” cancer survivor Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) told the cheering crowd. (Watch video of the speakers here.)

Fight Colorectal Cancer was one of 200-plus organizations who gathered and supported the  Rally for Medical Research, aimed at the politicians who have made, and are making,  decisions about budget cuts. The sequester alone will cut about $1.5 billion from the National Institutes of Health, and with overall budget cuts, NIH will lose about $12.5 billion over the year.

Penny-wise, pound-foolish: Research cuts mean lost jobs

Speaker Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Ph.D., president of Rockefeller University, pointed out that NIH total spending comes to about $100 per person in the U.S. each year, compared with that person’s yearly health costs totaling around $8000.

The main scientific organizations, including AACR (the American Association for Cancer Research) at its current annual meeting, point out that those NIH cuts alone will likely result in the loss of a half-million jobs, and an estimated $860 billion in economic growth over the next nine years. In fact,, federal investment in the largest-ever scientific collaboration, the Human Genome Project, paid off wildly: the economy gained $140 for every $1 in federal support over 5 years–not to mention the warp-speed increase in genetic knowledge about every major disease.

Scientists Honor Katie Couric

The AACR also took time to award colorectal cancer activist and journalist Katie Couric with its 2013 AACR Award for Distinguished Public Service, for all her work fundraising for research and drawing the public’s attention to cancer screening and treatment. She told the crowded hall, that “with 18,000 scientists gathered here, there are enough synapses firing in this room alone to power a nuclear reactor….To stand here in front of all of you is truly humbling….I consider myself the unofficial but highly enthusiastic cheerleader for the people who do research in cancer.”

Five years ago, she said, ” We could not tolerate the fact the NCI could only fund 1 in 10 of grant proposals,” so a dozen “truly Type A women” founded Stand Up To Cancer, emphasizing teamwork, tight time frames, and true collaboration with five “dream teams” (now grown to 10) taking on out-of-the-box ideas to beat cancer. (See the video about Katie Couric, followed by her speech, here.

Stay tuned…more to come

Fight Colorectal Cancer is well represented at AACR: stay tuned.

Sources: The Rally for Medical Research, reported on by The Hill, by HealthWatch , and “Thousands Rally for Medical Research in Washington, DC”, Apr. 8 Medscape Oncology News; news from AACR Annual Meeting, Tuesday Daily Alert. 

For the first time, a two-time colorectal cancer survivor will direct and shape daily broadcast news coverage from the U.S. on a global scale. It was announced last week that Jeff Zucker, age 47, will become the president of CNN Worldwide, after serving as executive producer of Katie Couric’s new talk show, Katie, and after heading up NBC Universal.

Beyond Zucker’s and Couric’s latest teaming, there’s a lesser known cultural history of how Zucker and Couric, former co-host of NBC’s Today show, worked as colleagues starting in the late 1990s to bring colorectal cancer coverage out of health story shadows and into mainstream media reports.  

Most TV viewers are not aware that Zucker was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 31 (then again at 34), and that he scheduled chemo sessions on Fridays to minimize work absences. The world did hear about the surprising death in 1998 of Jay Monahan, Couric’s husband and an NBC News legal analyst: he died at age 42 from colon cancer. Thus began a remarkable public campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

Harry Smith’s Early Show colonoscopy is being replayed on CBS.com.

You can watch Harry and Katie Couric the day before the test discuss the prep and talk about saving lives by finding polyps. This morning, Katie is in the procedure room with Harry and the medical staff.

Dr. Mark Pochapin demonstrates how the colonoscope works to view the colon, snare polyps if they are found, and remove them.

As Dr. Pochapin withdraws the scope, Harry is awake but comfortable, talking and asking questions.  Dr. Pochapin explains what he is seeing on the video monitor in Harry’s colon.

Afterwards, Harry said, “Piece of cake!  You have a tremendous peace of mind.”

Katie says, “Do it for the people you love.”

Anchor Harry Smith will have a colonoscopy live on the CBS Early Show March 10.  He plans to tell viewers about the procedure while it is happening.

Evening News anchor and managing editor Katie Couric will be with Smith during the colonoscopy and as he prepares for it the night before.

Gastroenterologist Dr. Mark Pochapin will do the procedure at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Read the rest of this entry »

Briefly: Randomized research found that radiation treatment to the entire brain after surgery for tumors that had spread to the brain didn’t improve either survival or the time that patients remained able to function independently.  Mice with muscle wasting and fat loss from cancer benefited from a commonly used diabetes drug.

In other headlines, Katie Couric received an award from Fordham University and called her work with colorectal cancer awareness “her greatest achievement.”  A panel at the FDA has recommended approval of a new formulation of OxyContin that is less easy to tamper with. Online registration for the October 4th Strides for Life Walk/Run closes on October 1. Read the rest of this entry »