National Patient Advocate Foundation Seeks To Streamline, Speed Up Cancer Research

The National Patient Advocate Foundation is calling on Americans to make cancer research a national priority, saying the pace of discovery is slowed by inefficiencies, duplicative and conflicting standards, bureaucratic requirements and delays in review decisions.

The foundation issued a white paper Friday, "Securing the Future of Innovation in Cancer Treatment," that it called a wake-up call.

"Cancer kills 1,600 Americans every day and this number will only increase in the years ahead unless we commit as a nation to hasten the pace of medical discovery," Nancy Davenport-Ennis, NPAF's founder and chairman, said in a press release. "It is time to put cancer innovation on the national agenda and press for solutions that will save lives instead of continuing a one-sided conversation on the cost of treatment."

To that end, the foundation said it would spearhead Project Innovation as a means of moving cancer discovery forward.

"Changing the situation will necessitate a more standardized regulatory-approval process, streamlining the logistical hurdles to conducting clinical trials, allowing patients expedited access to innovative therapies before they are approved for general use, and developing a centralized, nationwide hub from which data relating to cancer trials can be accessed and shared to accelerate research results," the foundation said.