After long haul, cancer bill passes

A bipartisan cancer research bill — aimed at tackling the disease's most dangerous forms — has finally passed Congress after nearly six years of work. The Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act passed both chambers last week as part of the conference report on defense authorization bill.

The bill will create scientific frameworks for addressing the most dangerous cancers. It was a project of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), whose legislative ground game yielded a bipartisan co-sponsor list nearly 300 members long in the House.

"When a patient is told by their doctor that they have pancreatic cancer, it’s essentially a death sentence," Eshoo said in a statement Friday. "Like many other forms of recalcitrant cancers, pancreatic cancer has a near zero survival rate. We can do better to increase the survival rate of recalcitrant cancers. This new law will help us achieve that goal."

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