Recap - Facebook Live Event with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

Last Wednesday, we held a Facebook live event in recognition of National Cancer Survivor Month and invited a special guest, Pam Traxel, Senior Vice President of Alliance Development and Philanthropy at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACSCAN), to talk about cancer prevention, screening, treatment, the importance of clinical trial diversity, and the need to protect cancer treatment research and development. You can click here to watch the entire half hour event.

I started the event with a few remarks about the impact cancer has on each of our lives. I pointed out that there are an estimated 16.9 million cancer survivors alive today, but, in 2022 in the U.S., there will be an estimated 1.92 million new cancer cases and 609,360 cancer deaths. These statistics highlight the importance of screening and other methods for early detection and prevention.

As is my habit I took a few moments at the beginning of the event to talk about some important issues that are threatening our healthcare, starting with a proposal that has once again been put forth to allow the government to set the price of prescription drugs. As we progress toward personalized healthcare, the reduction of options available to doctors is not the path we should be taking. Thrusting the government into this process would reduce the number of options available. I emphasized that no patient should face even the possibility of having fewer treatments or therapies available when undergoing cancer treatment.

I also pointed out that Senator Bernie Sanders may introduce an amendment in an unrelated piece of legislation to allow drugs to be imported from Canada. This is an unsafe and unworkable solution that will do very little to reduce the price of drugs for you and me. With that I turned the time over to Pam Traxel.

Pam began by pointing out that Cancer Action Network is the public policy arm of the American Cancer Society and that working to shape public policy concerning cancer patients has made a difference. She went on to point out that they advocate for the entire cancer continuum from screening and early detection to treatment and survivorship across all types of cancer.

Her first point was how important screening and early detection are and noted the important role that health coverage plays in getting screened.  ACSCAN is working to encourage Congress to extend and make permanent the subsidies in the American Rescue Plan for health coverage in the exchanges. They are also working to encourage states that have not chosen to expand Medicaid to do so, given that those states that have chosen to expand have seen a huge increase in cancer screening participation. The final area she focused on was encouraging Congress to implement a yearly cap on out-of-pocket Medicare prescription drug costs.

Pam also discussed the importance of states ensuring access to bio marker testing. She emphasized how important it is that our elected officials hear from us and where we stand on these important issues.

I then asked Pam a few questions, the first one concerned how seniors can prevent cancer and detect it early. Pam pointed out that living a healthy lifestyle is important and taking advantage of different screenings will help detect cancer early. She gave out a great link to information that will give us healthy lifestyle hints and the screenings available depending on our age. She emphasized that the best way to survive cancer is to detect it early. She knows that the pandemic has caused many of us to delay our screenings, and I admitted I was one that had delayed some screenings. She implored us to talk with the doctor about where we stood on our screenings and what do we need to do to get current.

In response to a question on the biggest advances she has seen in cancer research and treatment innovation, Pam noted the ability to target cancer more closely and for medicines to go directly to the cancer cells and kill them is very encouraging. Through the use of bio markers and unimpaired access to new medicines we have a much better chance to survive cancer. She also said that there are many new developments in ways to detect cancer early that is lifesaving.

Pam pointed out that ACSCAN is pushing for the passage of the Diverse Trials Act, a bipartisan, bicameral piece of legislation. This bill would help people who are participating in clinical trials with their ancillary costs, removing some of the barriers that exist for clinical trial participation. Pam also pointed out that in cancer clinical trials half of the participants receive the normal cancer treatment and half receive the new drug, as opposed to other trials where half get a placebo and half get the new drug. This removes another barrier to trial participation.

I then asked about the impact of screenings and early detection. Pam discussed the fact that early screening and detection along with a significant increase in the number of drugs and therapies available has made a huge difference in cancer survivability in the last decade. She pointed out how important innovation is in the fight against cancer. New drugs mean new options which means more lives saved. This led to my final question of what would happen if we limited innovation and produced fewer drugs to fight cancer. Her answer was simple – cancer will kill you if there is no intervention, and the tools that are used to fight cancer are prescription drugs. If we have fewer drugs, we have fewer tools to fight cancer and save lives.

To sum up our conversation, there are three main points:

• Early detection through screenings and healthy living will have a huge impact on surviving cancer
• Government intervention in our healthcare will obstruct innovation with little reduction in out-of-pocket costs for the patient
• Your voice in speaking out to your elected officials can and will make a difference

I hope you enjoyed this Facebook live event; you can see the entire video here. We look forward to your participation at our next Facebook live event.

Best, Thair