Congress is considering a $100 million cut in federal funding for the National Institutes of Health. The move would limit cancer research directed by the NIH's National Cancer Institute, and many survivors and advocates are starting to rally and lobby their legislators. Since they consider the cuts a life-or-death issue, the American Cancer Society offered two people to comment: Diane Phillips, the American Cancer Society's director of government relations for Pennsylvania, and Patrick Delaney, of the society's Philadelphia office.

City Paper: Why would they propose such a drastic cut?

Diane Phillips: There's certainly a lot of stress on the national budget with the war in Iraq and the natural disasters that have happened recently. But there are always going to be serious issues and we can't stop moving forward on the war on cancer.

CP: How will this affect medical research and the possibility of finding better treatment options?

DP: It could mean a delay in new cancer drugs, developing new cancer screening methodologies and fewer lifesaving cancer treatments. For people currently living with cancer, they are benefiting from past research, but for some folks, they are only going to survive if research comes through.

CP: What is your organization doing to fight the proposed cuts?

DP: We're encouraging our volunteers to contact U.S. House members and Senate members and let them know that these cuts are not right, they're not appropriate. It's important that we're all a voice [to Congress] saying, "You have to be careful about doing this—people's lives are at stake."

CP: How will the cuts affect Philadelphia?

Patrick Delaney: Certainly Philadelphia has a wealth of research institutions, specifically cancer institutions. We've invested $16 million at work in cancer research in Philadelphia. As a center of health care and cancer treatment, Philadelphia will be directly impacted in the years to come. It will impact patients coming into Philadelphia down the road.

CP: In September, Congress signed their support for Bush's goal of ending cancer deaths by 2015. How does this mesh with the proposed cuts in funding?

DP: We support the Bush administration's goal to end suffering and death from cancer by 2015. … For some people there's a really bright outlook for treatment but for others [there's] not, and we want to fill that gap. By 2015, we don't want cancer to be a death sentence anymore, and that was what the Bush administration had articulated.