In the News
September 30, 2014
Austinites leading the charge to improve access to experimental drugs
Friends say Andrea Sloan would have loved to attend a summit this weekend in Washington, D.C., that will focus on research for childhood cancer and expanded access to experimental drugs for all cancer patients.
Sloan, 45, passed away earlier this year after a fight to gain access to an experimental drug to treat her ovarian ca
June 24, 2014
Advocates for those with childhood cancers will tell lawmakers Tuesday that more funding is badly needed to help research and treat the diseases.
Members of the Alliance for Childhood Cancer are calling on congressional leaders to pass the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Reauthorization Act and increase funding to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Issues:
September 20, 2013
Pediatricians and child health advocates joined members of Congress Thursday for the Fourth Annual Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus.
Doctors say they're making progress in treating pediatric diseases and developing new drugs.
The research has been made possible under the Creating Hope Act, co-sponsored by Austin Area Representative Michael McCaul.
Budget battles in Washington have made some
September 21, 2012
Usually, when Brianna Commerford misses school, her mom has to write a note to her principal that says ‘doctor’s appointment’ or ‘sick.’ This one said ‘speaking on Capitol Hill.’
“When I was nine years old, I was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkins’ Lymphoma,” the 14-year-old told the third annual Childhood Cancer Summit Thursday.
When Commerford was diagnosed in 2007, she was taken out of school
July 9, 2012
President Obama signed a bill today that will provide incentives to drug companies to research and develop drugs for rare diseases.
The Creating Hope Act grants pharmaceutical companies that create drugs for diseases like childhood cancers a voucher giving speedier review of any other drug they submit for approval.
The Oval Office signature was a hard-fought victory for children like Mollie Ward
Issues:
Creating Hope Act of 2011
July 5, 2012
WASHINGTON - When all else failed, the promise of corporate profits for pediatric cancer drugs did what cajoling to save children could not.
Legislation by Texas Rep.
Issues:
Creating Hope Act of 2011
July 3, 2012
This is the saddest story you will ever read about how a bill becomes law. It should also make you feel better about our dysfunctional political system.
The story begins on a Sunday in February 2007, when a doctor suggested that Jacob Froman, then 8, had brain cancer. An MRI on Monday confirmed the grim diagnosis: metastatic medulloblastoma.
Issues:
Creating Hope Act of 2011
October 3, 2011
This was supposed to be the year for Jacob Froman's bar mitzvah, except that a rare and fatal brain cancer reached out for him first.
Just 10, Jacob died in 2009, two years after a diagnosis of medulloblastoma, a rare brain cancer with no drug designed specifically to treat it.
During the arduous months of ultimately unsuccessful treatments, his mother, Nancy Goodman, discovered that few pharmac
Issues:
Creating Hope Act of 2011
September 29, 2011
Last week, Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX), along with Reps. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Sue Myrick (R-NC), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), introduced H.R. 3059, the Creating Hope Act of 2011. The bill is a companion bill to S. 606, which was introduced in the Senate earlier this year by Senator Robert Casey (D-PA), along with co-sponsors Sens.
Issues:
Creating Hope Act of 2011
September 28, 2011
Imagine your child fighting for his life, taking massive doses of highly toxic radiation, chemotherapy to kill the cancer in his body before it kills him.
Issues:
Creating Hope Act of 2011