BILL ANALYSIS
SJR 7
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SJR 7 (Alan Lowenthal)
As Introduced April 20, 2009
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :36-0
HEALTH 19-0
-----------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Jones, Fletcher, Villines, |
| |Ammiano, Block, Carter, Conway, |
| |Hill, De Leon, Emmerson, Gaines, |
| |Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Bonnie |
| |Lowenthal, Nava, |
| |V. Manuel Perez, Salas, Audra |
| |Strickland |
| | |
-----------------------------------------
SUMMARY : Urges the President and the Congress of the United
States (U.S.) to expand federally funded research efforts aimed
at developing a reliable means of detecting pancreatic cancer in
its early stages and more effective means of treatment, through
legislative measures, such as H.R. 745. Specifically, this
resolution :
1)Makes the following legislative findings and declarations
regarding the devastating impact of pancreatic cancer and the
lack of resources currently targeted towards research for
detecting and treating pancreatic cancer.
2)Urges the California Legislature, the President and Congress
of the U.S. to expand federally funded research efforts aimed
at developing a reliable means of detecting pancreatic cancer
in its early stages and more effective means of treatment,
through legislative measures, such as H.R. 745.
3)Resolves that the Secretary of the California State Senate
transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice
President of the U.S., to the Speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives, to each U.S. Senator and Representative from
California in the Congress, and to the directors of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NCI.
SJR 7
Page 2
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : According to the sponsor of this resolution,
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, pancreatic cancer is one of
the few cancers for which survival has not improved
substantially over the past 30 years. As the most lethal form
of cancer - 75% of pancreatic cancer patients die within the
first year of their diagnosis and only 5% survive more than five
years - pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of
cancer-related death in the U.S. The sponsor maintains that the
number of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the U.S.
and the number of deaths caused by pancreatic cancer are going
up and expected to reach over 40,000 nationally within the next
few years. The sponsor argues that available pancreatic cancer
early detection and treatment tools for pancreatic cancer today
are roughly equivalent to the tools available for breast cancer
in the 1930s. By the 1930s, rudimentary surgical methods to
remove early breast and pancreatic cancer tumors had been
developed. However, according to the sponsor, while mammography
was developed by the 1950s, and many effective breast cancer
treatments followed, similar early detection and treatment tools
for pancreatic cancer still do not exist. The sponsor maintains
that current federal funding levels for pancreatic cancer have
rendered scientific progress for this disease fatally slow.
According to the sponsor there are a number of factors that make
pancreatic cancer research particularly challenging, such as:
1) pancreatic cancer research has been drastically under-funded
and as a result there a relatively few researchers investigating
the disease; 2) pancreatic cancer cells are surrounded by tough,
dense fibrotic cells that make it extremely difficult for
treatments to reach and enter the actual cancer cells; and, 3)
pancreatic cancer patients die quickly, making it difficult to
include them in clinical trials and/or collect tissue samples.
These challenges, according to the sponsor, are not
insurmountable, but require disease specific solutions.
The Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act (Act), or H.R.
745, was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by
California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo to assist in coordinating
activities to address the high mortality rate associated with
pancreatic cancer. H.R. 745 is based on the National Plan to
Advance Pancreatic Cancer Research, a report developed by the
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. Key components of the Act
SJR 7
Page 3
include launching a pancreatic cancer research initiative which
would be established by the Secretary of the Department of
Health and Human Services in consultation with the Directors of
the NIH, NCI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) to:
1)Provide strategic direction and accountability.
2)Establish a five-year grant for a cancer research incubator
pilot project at the NCI specifically for research into the
most deadly cancers.
3)Strengthen and expand Centers of Excellence for Pancreatic
Cancer to provide increased opportunities for cancer research.
4)Promote physician and public awareness by asking NIH and CDC
to work with patient advocacy organizations to develop a
primary care provider education program on pancreatic cancer
and a communication tool kit for patients.
Analysis Prepared by : Tanya Robinson-Taylor / HEALTH / (916)
319-2097
FN: 0001569