Patsy T. Mink: “I rise today to ask all of my colleagues to vote for H. Con. Res. 385, which calls upon the Secretary of Health and…”

“I rise today to ask all of my colleagues to vote for H. Con. Res. 385, which calls upon the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct or support research on certain tests to screen for ovarian cancer and to ensure that Federal health care plans and group and individual health plans cover the tests if they are demonstrated to be effective. I am a proud co-sponsor of this important legislation. As many of my colleague know, increasing research funding for ovarian cancer, especially for development of an early detection test, has been among my top legislative priorities for the past decade. My bill, H.R. 326, the Ovarian Cancer Research and Information Amendments Act, has 142 co-sponsors. I have introduced a similar bill in each Congress, beginning in 1991. I was thrilled to learn in February of this year of a blood test developed by Correlogic Systems Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland which has been studied by researchers at the National Cancer Institute and the Food and Drug Administration. In the study, scientists used a protein pattern they developed to classify 116 blood samples that were known to include 50 cancerous samples and 66 noncancerous samples. The test correctly identified the 50 cancerous samples and correctly identified 95 percent of the control sample as noncancerous. It is urgent that large-scale testing of this technology be begun as soon as possible.”