Walz supports funding increase in DoD research for ovarian and prostate cancer

We found an interesting letter online from members of Congress asking for increasing the funding for the DOD ovarian and prostate cancer research program from $10 million to $25 million in the coming fiscal year.  It begins:

On behalf of the millions of Americans touched by ovarian and prostate cancer, we write to express our strong support for increased funding for the Ovarian and Prostate Cancer Research Programs funded through the Department of Defense's (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).We respectfully request that the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense allocate $25 million for the Ovarian Cancer Research Program (OCRP) and $100 million for the Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) in Fiscal Year 2009.

; These programs support important biomedical research grants that fill gaps in ongoing research and complement initiatives sponsored by other agencies. According to a 2004 Institute of Medicine report, the CDMRP research programs fill a “unique niche” in cancer research and have proven to be promising vehicles for forging new ideas and scientific breakthroughs for numerous diseases.The programs focus on providing funding to researchers who wish to improve current approaches to their areas of investigation – implementing innovative methods of research or developing novel adaptations of existing methods.

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