Congress: Give Basic Cancer Research the funding it deserves.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US. Over HALF A MILLION PEOPLE die of cancer annually. Currently, our grueling and generally ineffective treatment methods cost us over $80 Billion in direct medical care costs alone, and are a major burden on our healthcare system. Everyone has over a 40% lifetime risk of getting cancer themselves, yet compared to our annual military expenditures of over $600 Billion, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding for basic biomedical research to find the cure for cancer is just a miniscule $5 Billion! President Obama and Congress, please recognize that a well funded and intensive basic research program to find the cure for cancer once and for all, would be of immense value to our society. Eliminating the huge burden this insidious disease costs us all - loss of productivity, spiraling healthcare costs, and the emotional pain to sufferers and their families - is now within the realm of current biomedical technology. But, it is a difficult job that requires the full and intensive dedication to research for an effective solution, not the relative "drop in the bucket" which it has been allocated over the years. For example, if just half of the military budget of the US was redirected to the NCI, that would result in a 60-FOLD increase in funding available to basic research! I am sure the military would still be able to protect our country with $300 Billion annually, and then finally we could rid ourselves of this disease which kills more people than all wars ever combined, yet remains as the greatest unsolved problem in medicine. Thank you for your understanding and timely action to implement this solution.