What Do the Big Cancer Fund Raisers Allot for CAM?
We’ve been discussing clinical trials for new cancer treatment possibilities. We’ve alluded to the high costs for these trials. So, who pays for this research? The major source for cancer research financing is the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI is a government agency, and the providers of almost all of their funds are this nation’s tax payers–you and I. This year’s federal budget includes $5.15 billion for NCI. Of that, only $122 million is earmarked for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). That is about 2% of all NCI research allocated to CAM.
The next largest supplier of cancer research funds is the American Cancer Society (ACS). Their receipts are almost completely from donations from fundraising projects such as Relay for Life and corporate or philanthropic grants. Their annual budget is hovering around a billion dollars now with less than 1% going toward anything CAM related.
A third significant player in the funding of cancer research is the Komen Foundation. Concentrating exclusively on breast cancer, Komen is raising about $60 million each year for fighting the disease. Their Race for the Cure grows more popular every year. This year, they have only four projects for CAM-oriented research with a cost of about a million dollars. That is less than 2% of their annual research budget.
It is difficult to analyze the contributions of these and a host of other agencies that contribute to cancer research. But, I believe I can safely say that the sum of all research efforts involving natural complementary cancer treatments only amount to between one and two percent of the total cancer research efforts of our nation. I strongly advocate giving to cancer research. Run the races, participate in the walk-a-thons, buy the pink products, drop your extra change in the fast food containers, and send your checks to your favorite agency. However, do it with the understanding that only one or two percent will finance research other than the quest for more drugs and conventional modalities. If you desire to earmark your donations to help the one or two percent effort toward promising complementary therapies, you only have a few options. One is the Connie Thompson Foundation. Another is the Helen Moss Foundation.
The new strategy for the war on cancer hopes to increase the allocations of major funding agencies to research in the genre of non-toxic, non-intrusive complementary therapies. The strategy also encourages the establishment of more fund-raising foundations to support research into these therapies.