U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, today joined colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives in advancing S. 292, the Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research (STAR) Act, which is the most comprehensive childhood cancer legislation ever taken up by Congress.
“Following on the heels of the 21st Century Cures Act, this is another important step to help find cures and treatments for our smallest patients bravely battling disease,” said Upton. “This bill will bolster research and treatment efforts for pediatric cancer. With today’s strong bipartisan vote, this bill now heads to the president’s desk. For patients here in Michigan and across the country – hope is on its way.”
Specifically, the Childhood Cancer STAR Act will:
- Authorize $30 million a year through Fiscal Year 2023 for grants to support the National Childhood Cancer Registry.
- Authorize the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to make awards to support childhood cancer biorepositories available to health care professionals and scientific researchers.
- Authorize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to award grants to state cancer registries to enhance and expand infrastructure to track the epidemiology of cancer in children, adolescents, and young adults.
- Require at least one individual with experience in pediatric oncology to be included on the National Cancer Advisory Board.
- Require the Director of National Institutes of Health (NIH) to ensure that childhood cancer research projects conducted or supported by NIH are included in the appropriate reports to Congress, which may include reports regarding the Pediatric Research Initiative.
- Allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make grants establishing pilot programs to develop, study, or evaluate model systems to improve the quality and efficiency of care for childhood cancer survivors and to improve the coordination of care as survivors transition to adult care.
- Require the Secretary to conduct a review and report to Congress on the Department’s activities related to workforce development for health care providers who treat pediatric cancer patients and survivors.
- Allow the NIH Director to make grants to entities to conduct or support research relating to pediatric cancer survivors.
- Allow the Secretary to identify best practices for quality childhood cancer survivorship care in consultation with experts in late effects of disease and treatment of childhood cancers.
