Two influential policy makers visited MUSC's Hollings Cancer Center extolling the importance of maintaining funding for cancer research given looming governmental cutbacks.

Sen. Lindsey Graham and Harold Varmus, M.D., director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and co-recipient of a Nobel Prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, met with press and health care professionals at Hollings Cancer Center (HCC) June 4. Varmus addressed a standing–room–only crowd for a special seminar held at the Bioengineering Building explaining the new themes at NCI of precision medicine, global health and provocative questions.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), front, meets with Drs. Andrew S. Kraft, left, Harold Varmus and Ray Greenberg June 4.

Lindsey, who offered statements to the press before Varmus' presentation, said that South Carolina has disproportionately high rates of some types of cancer and needs to do what it can to ensure that Holling's Cancer Center maintains its research funding. NCI faces a possible funding decrease of 8.5 percent, a drop that Graham described as political malpractice.

The center currently receives $1 million from the institute's $5 billion annual budget that is set to be trimmed.

"For $5 billion, we're making dramatic strides against cancer across the board," Graham said. "The idea of cutting that 8.5 percent makes no sense to me. The amount of money coming into the Holling's Cancer Center has phenomenally increased the ability of people to survive cancer episodes in South Carolina. If government isn't about saving lives and improving the quality of life, what is it about?"

Varmus said he was impressed that HCC was able to get the status of being an NCI–designated cancer center, one of 66 nationally, in 2009. "We at the NCI value our cancer centers very highly. When they pass the scrutiny of our peer reviewers and win the designated status, we know they are strong. We like having cancer centers spread throughout the country and not just in New York, San Francisco and Boston. We're very pleased to find here in South Carolina, you have a strong center."

In his presentation, Varmus covered some of the exciting changes happening in cancer research.

"We're seeing in some types of cancer revolutionary changes in the way we diagnose and treat the disease and new ways to prevent it and to screen for it. We've gone from a time when cancer was a complete mystery to a time now just 20 or 30 years later when we understand exactly the type of changes that occur in our chromosomes that turn a normal cell into a cancer cell. That's had profound implications for prevention, diagnosis and treatment."

Covering the NCI's provocative questions project, Varmus shared with researchers and clinicians some of the questions driving the frontiers in cancer research. (For information, visit http://provocativequestions.nci.nih.gov/.) Given recent technological advances, especially in genomics, molecular biology, and computational sciences, there has never been a better time for doing cancer research, he said.

"We have made large leaps in our basic knowledge about cancers — especially about the genetic and biochemical mechanisms by which they arise."

Andrew S. Kraft, M.D., HCC director, said he was pleased by the visit during what is a challenging fiscal environment. Cancer centers grow based on the commitment of state leaders to have an outstanding one.

"In South Carolina, where rates for some cancers are among the highest in the nation, increased funding means we can intervene in cancer earlier — from preventing and controlling it to diagnosing it earlier and developing better therapies to treat it."

Cancer is set in a few years to overtake heart disease as the leading killer of Americans, Kraft said.

"Further cuts to the NCI would be passed down to us and our research programs. Cancer research here and other places would be set back at a time when we need to be more aggressive than ever in exploiting what we've learned about this complex disease and investing in people and technology to slow it down."

In the meantime, Varmus' special seminar had MUSC medical professionals discussing the issues.

NCI Director Harold Varmus addresses a packed house June 4 for his special seminar on new themes at the NCI.

Research specialist Deirdre Walker, who attended the seminar, said she enjoyed the provocative questions project and the overview of the advances in the field. "There were a lot of things worth thinking about," she said, noting the disparities in cancer rates based on variables such as geography and gender. "It was very worthwhile. It changes the way you look at things."