FRIDAY, June 2, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- The United States is not moving fast enough to implement recommendations for supporting cancer survivors and for improving basic research, according to a new report from the President's Cancer Panel.
While there have been some steps forward, overall progress has been disappointing, the expert panelists said.
"We don't think enough has happened," said Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., chairman of the panel and Charles R. Drew professor or surgery at Howard University, in Washington, D.C. "These issues are too important."
On Friday, the panel released its annual report to President Bush, Assessing Progress, Advancing Change, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in Atlanta.
Outside experts, however, painted a rosier picture of the progress made against cancer.
"Having practiced cancer medicine for 25 years, I think we've made amazing progress, although we have a long way to go," said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System, in Baton Rouge, La. "I'm very optimistic about where we've come from, and where we're going."
Brooks cited advances in cancer prevention, treatment and in reducing the risk of malignancy in patients at high risk. "Although the panel painted it as a mixed bag, I'm tremendously optimistic to see the advances that we've made," Brooks said.
The panel usually releases a new report each year but, this year, it decided to revisit two old reports instead. The two reports were Living Beyond Cancer: Finding a New Balance (2003) and Translating Research into Cancer Care: Delivering on the Promise (2005).
In those reports, the panel had recommended urgent action to better meet the needs of the nation's 10 million cancer survivors, as well as to speed the translation of basic scientific advances into real progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
"Normally, the panel gets a new topic but we said that cancer survivorship and translating research are so important, let's pull out the most important recommendations that we made in each one and see if we can re-emphasize them," Leffall said.
In August and October 2005, the panel held four meetings with 75 "stakeholders" from government, academia, industry, advocacy and other areas related to cancer to get their insight into progress or lack of progress.
The panel focused on three prior recommendations made in the area of cancer survivorship: Providing treatment summaries and follow-up care guidelines for cancer patients and survivors; increasing research on cancer in adolescents and young adults; and providing adequate insurance coverage and increased access to care.
Improvements need to be made in disseminating information about cancer and cancer care so that health-care providers and their patients can make more informed decisions, the new report found. People finishing cancer treatment need to receive information on follow-up care to guide them in the months and years ahead.
The panel also looked at three recommendations in the area of translating research into improved care: Changing the culture of research to encourage team science; building and retaining a research workforce; and improving dissemination of research advances and new treatments to improve outcomes.
The nation seems to be falling short in each of these areas, particularly in maintaining an effective workforce, the panelists said.
"We must change the culture of research to encourage team science," Leffall said. "We also want to build and retain a translational workforce, and we thought people who were providing care and research were in short supply. We have to be sure we have enough people."
The panel members also expressed disappointment at the lack of optimism among leaders in the cancer community.
After the report is shown to the president, panel members will visit various health agencies, primary among them the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to talk about how the recommendations might be put into practice.
"The panel believes there's no question progress has been made, but many challenges still lie ahead," Leffall said. "Cancer affects so many families and, as a nation, we need to do a better job of understanding and treating it."
More information
For more on the report, visit the President's Cancer Panel.
