WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 8, 2009 – The Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Advocacy Alliance today applauded the reported selection of Francis Collins to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health. The former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up NIH, Collins is a leader in the personalization of medicine and a forceful advocate of transparency and collaboration in research.
“Francis Collins’ experience leading the human genome project will be vital to ensuring NIH continues to push for collaboration among researchers and that discoveries made in the lab make their way to patients’ bedsides as quickly as possible,” said Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, chair of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Advocacy Alliance. “We look forward to working with Dr. Collins to increase our nation’s investment into research, so that we can reduce incidence and discover and deliver the cures to cancer in our lifetime.”
Cancer costs the U.S. $219 billion each year in medical costs and lost productivity. It claims more than 560,000 lives each year and inflicts incalculable physical pain and emotional distress on cancer patients and their families.
Brinker noted that Komen joins our partners in the One Voice Against Cancer coalition in calling for a doubling of the National Cancer Institute budget over the next eight years and doubling NIH’s budget over the next ten.
“It’s time to unleash the amazing power of science, technology and medicine to discover new ways to detect cancer of any type as early as possible – earlier than we can currently imagine,” said Brinker. “We want our children to live in a world where detection is simple and treatment is so targeted and personalized that we don’t have to worry about the toxic side effects of current chemotherapy regimens.”
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