WASHINGTON, D.C. (WTRF) - Just one day after President Donald Trump signed new childhood cancer legislation into law 7News is hearing from Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who introduced the bill long with Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed.
Surrounded by lawmakers, childhood cancer survivors and their families, President Trump turned legislation into law on Tuesday.
"More than 15,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year," he President said. "Tragically cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among American children and adolescence.
According to the National Cancer Institute, 1,250 of the more than 10,000 children who were diagnosed with cancer in the last year will die from the disease.
"This is going to help us in West Virginia particularly at our research centers at WVU and at Marshall at the children's hospital," Senator Capito said. "This is something I've worked on a couple years and President Trump was very very pleased to be signing that into law."
Senator Joe Manchin also applauded the passing of the Childhood Cancer STAR Act, saying in a statement:
“The Childhood Cancer STAR Act is a step in the right direction for ground breaking cancer research and giving kids fighting cancer and their families the support they need. No cost is ever too high to help a child and I’m proud this legislation was signed into law."
Part of that law includes caring for children who survive, making sure they have the best quality of life possible after the disease.
"We know that sometimes after treatment there are residual health effects from childhood cancer," Senator Capito said. "You can't treat childhood cancer the way you treat adult cancer, so the more research we have, the better registries we have."
Registries will identify and track incidences of cancer, allowing research to be more specific and locating the best places to seek treatment.
"When I listened to the parents talk, one child was diagnosed the mother stayed in Washington, the child and the father went to MD Anderson (Cancer Center) in Houston,' explained Senator Capito. "Somebody else had to go out of the country for this specific kind of cancer, so these registries I think will help us identify where those cancers are and the centers of excellence too."
The next step is to fund this research.
Senator Capito said that since she's on the appropriations committee, she's well placed to begin that fight.