Sean Patrick Maloney: “I join with my colleagues to mark the Breast Cancer Awareness Month and thank the co-chairs of the women's caucus for…”

“I join with my colleagues to mark the Breast Cancer Awareness Month and thank the co-chairs of the women's caucus for putting this together tonight. We have made enormous progress in the fight against breast cancer. We have more than doubled the Federal dollars for breast cancer research since I came here in 1993. This has been the effort primarily of women in the women's caucus, some famous, some infamous, and many men who have been our allies and they have helped us get this funding. In particular, I would like to mention the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), who each year funds breast cancer research in the DOD budget to well over $175 million. Over the past 20 years thanks in large part to this government-funded research, there has been an explosion in what we know about and how to prevent and treat a disease that is expected to strike over 192,000 American women in 2001. Breast cancer mortality rates have fallen every year since 1989. We now have a drug that can decrease the chance of developing breast cancer by 50 percent if we detect problems early; and research on new detection and treatment methods is moving forward faster than ever before. Gene expression will isolate the genes that will trigger breast cancer allowing for customized, more effective treatment. Biologically targeted therapies will identify and target proteins and other agents that make cancer cells grow without affecting healthy cells.”