In response to a comment Ben Cardin made Monday that curing cancer was completely attainable by 2015, Cardin’s spokesman is now saying the Senate hopeful was not so much guaranteeing the eradication of the deadly disease as supporting efforts of scientists to work toward that lofty goal.
U.S. Rep. Cardin, D-Md., was quoted during a campaign roundtable discussion on pre-cancer screening in Lutherville as saying, “We are going to lick cancer by 2015.”
Yet, the longtime Maryland congressman’s campaign spokesman Oren Shur said Tuesday that the comment was referring to Cardin’s backing of the National Cancer Institute’s challenge goal of eliminating the suffering and death due to cancer by 2015, which was formulated in 2003 to spur scientists.
“America has a tradition of rallying around big ideas, and beating cancer is certainly one of those,” Shur said. “Ben Cardin strongly supports the (NCI) goal of beating cancer by 2015.”
It’s a goal NCI public relations specialist Dorie Hightower says was “more of a leadership initiative from Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach,” the institute’s former director who left last fall to be the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
“The new acting director for the past two months who we hope will be the permanent director has downplayed the exact year,” Hightower said.
She would not further discuss the institute’s progress toward a cure.
Cardin’s agenda to help fight cancer has focused on increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s leader in cancer research; increasing Americans’ awareness of cancer screenings; increasing access to care for minority cancer patients, and encouraging patients to participate in clinical trials used to look into possible treatments and cures.
dlevitz@dcexaminer.com
