42 U.S.C. § 285a: Research, information, and education with respect to blood cancer

The Director of NIH shall expand, intensify, and coordinate programs for the conduct and support of research with respect to blood cancer, and particularly with respect to leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. The Director of NIH shall carry out this subsection through the Director of the National Cancer Institute and in collaboration with any other agencies that the Director determines to be appropriate. The Secretary shall direct the appropriate agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the Director of NIH, to establish and carry out a program to provide information and education for patients and the general public with respect to blood cancer, and particularly with respect to the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. The Agency determined by the Secretary under paragraph (1) shall carry out this subsection in collaboration with private health organizations that have national education and patient assistance programs on blood-related cancers. An estimated 109,500 people in the United States will be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma in 2001. New cases of the blood cancers described in paragraph (1) account for 8.6 percent of new cancer cases. Those devastating blood cancers will cause the deaths of an estimated 60,300 persons in the United States in 2001. Every 9 minutes, a person in the United States dies from leukemia, lymphoma, or multiple myeloma. While less than 5 percent of Federal funds for cancer research are spent on those blood cancers, those blood cancers cause 11 percent of all cancer deaths in the United States. Increased Federal support of research into leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma has resulted and will continue to result in significant advances in the treatment, and ultimately the cure, of those blood cancers as well as other cancers.”