The U.S. Senate and House recently released their conference report on the 2019 Defense Appropriations Bill, which once again allocates $100M to the Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP).
Approximately one year previous, Congress increased the PCRP at the Department of Defense (DoD) budget by $10M, returning the program to its 2001 funding level for the first time in 18 years.
The PCRP budget has been at $100M for the first time in back to back years. This increase could mean a brighter future for men fighting prostate cancer, and the funds could possibly lead to new groundbreaking treatments and diagnostic tools.
In February hundreds of passionate advocates spent countless hours meeting with their elected officials through ZERO’s Summit in Washington, D.C. Many then spent time on the telephone lines. They also pounded the pavement during a recess period by attending in-district meetings.
The move to increase research funds at the PCRP is at the top of ZERO’s Summit agenda. This program works with patients to identify gaps in research and care. It then awards talented scientists who are pursuing advancements to eliminate those identified areas of need.
The research funded by the PCRP is more critical than ever as Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data from the National Cancer Institute predicted deaths to jump by 3,000 in 2018 alone.
More than 164,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year and nearly ten percent of those diagnoses will occur among our nation’s veteran population.