WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) today applauded the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of the Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research (STAR) Act (S. 292)—bipartisan legislation Senator Capito introduced with Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) last February and the Senate passed in March.

“Today’s passage of the Childhood Cancer STAR Act in the House is great news for all those impacted by childhood cancer,” Senator Capito said. “I am proud of the work Senator Reed and I have done to advance this bill, and I know this legislation will make an important difference in the lives of children with cancer, as well as childhood cancer survivors and their families. I am thrilled our bill has now passed the House and look forward to President Trump signing this life-saving bill into law soon.”

While some progress has been made in pediatric cancer research—with deaths from childhood cancer declining by almost 70 percent over the last four decades—cancer is still the leading cause of death by disease past infancy among children in the United States, according to National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI estimates that nationwide, 10,380 children and adolescents up to 14 years of age were diagnosed with cancer within the last year, and 1,250 will die of the disease.

BACKGROUND 

The Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research (STAR) Act (S. 292) would expand opportunities for childhood cancer research, improve efforts to identify and track childhood cancer incidences, and enhance the quality of life for childhood cancer survivors. 

  • Expanding Opportunities for Childhood Cancer Research: Due to the relatively small population of children with cancer and the geographic distance between these children, researching childhood cancer can be challenging. As such, the Childhood Cancer STAR Act would authorize the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to expand existing efforts to collect biospecimens for childhood cancer patients enrolled in NCI-sponsored clinical trials to collect and maintain relevant clinical, biological, and demographic information on all children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer.
  • Improving Childhood Cancer Surveillance: Building upon previous efforts, this bill would authorize grants to state cancer registries to identify and track incidences of child, adolescent, and young adult cancer. This funding would be used to identify and train reporters of childhood cancer cases, secure infrastructure to ensure early reporting and capture of child cancer incidences, and support the collection of cases into a national childhood cancer registry.
  • Improving Quality of Life for Childhood Cancer Survivors: Unfortunately, even after beating cancer, as many as two-thirds of survivors suffer from late effects of their disease or treatment, including secondary cancers and organ damage. This legislation would enhance research on the late effects of childhood cancers, improve collaboration among providers so that doctors are better able to care for this population as they age, and establish a new pilot program to begin to explore innovative models of care for childhood cancer survivors.
  • Ensuring Pediatric Expertise at the National Institutes of Health (NIH): The Childhood Cancer STAR Act would require the inclusion of at least one pediatric oncologist on the National Cancer Advisory Board and would improve childhood health reporting requirements to include pediatric cancer. 

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