WASHINGTON, D.C. (WVDN) – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS), chaired a hearing with Director of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., and the Directors of the National Institute on Aging, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to consider President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget request, as well as the many priorities of the agency.
HIGHLIGHTS:
ON NCI-DESIGNATED CANCER CENTERS
Chairman Capito:
“I am from a rural state, as we know. And I’m very interested in the NCI Cancer Center designations, and I’ve seen several projects where it talks about the concentration of cancers in rural areas, such as mine, such as many of our states here. And some of the states that bear the highest cancer incidents and mortality rates remain largely without access to NCI-designated care, where it’s proven, the care is better, more successful, and has better rates of cure. So, you know, we have the IDEA program, which has great success. And to help get some of that biomedical research out to our rural areas. What I would like to see is this NCI-cancer designation branch sort of an alternative designation pathways or something so that the structural barriers that are preventing our eligible institutes and states such as mine from getting, and I know mine’s working towards this. So, and I know you’re working with them and I appreciate that. Will you continue to keep looking at this comprehensive review of cancer center support, and maybe you could give us just still, like, a thirty second, how much more successful the rates are around cancer center designations for the patients that are being served in those immediate or regional areas.”
Dr. Anthony Letai, Director of the National Cancer Institute:
“First, I’d like to say that I think an undercurrent of your question is that, it’s no good to have major advances in cancer research unless we can reach all Americans with them and the -I in the NCI would wholeheartedly agree with you on that. With respect to West Virginia, we are working closely with Dr. Hazard Jenkins to make sure that when an application is submitted, it will be a successful application. As you may know, NCI-Designated Cancer Centers are specifically designated because of their devotion to research as well as clinical as well as basic research, if they are a comprehensive cancer center. And I think that’s a very laudable goal. And I agree with you that our cancer centers, not only providing clinical care, but also advancing the standard of care, our NCI-Designated Cancer Centers have been essential to that function. And we look forward to cancer centers from rural states joining that group. I also want to make the point, though, that NCI-Designated Cancer Centers aren’t the only way that we bring top quality care to the more rural eras of America. We also have NCORP sites, as well as NCTN sites throughout the country where people can enroll in NCI-supported cancer clinical trials. And that’s a way of getting cutting edge clinical research to people, whether they’re in rural environments or urban environments and we look forward to continuing that.
ON OPIOID RESEARCH RESULTS:
Senator Capito:
“Dr. Volkow, you know, in your visit of West Virginia and your many years of working in your area of expertise that we still have big problems. We’re having breakthroughs also in your area, some exciting opioid research results from NIDA intramural research team…Dr. Mike, and his team identified a novel, highly potent opioid that shows potential therapy for pain and opioid use disorder. Could you describe that research, please?”
Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse
“It is actually quite important because the overdose crisis was born out of lack of treatment for people suffering from chronic pain that led to the use of opioids. So, a priority for the institute in partnership with others, is to develop safer treatments for people with severe pain. And so, the one that you are reporting by Dr. Michael actually works. It’s an opioid itself. So, you can either go to mechanisms that don’t invoke the opioid system or those that do. And most of the most powerful drugs we have actually activate that opioid system. What he has been able to document in animals is that this molecule, activates the opioid receptor in a different way, such that that signaling inside the cell results in does not result in that respiratory depression or the addictiveness of typical opioid drugs. So, in that respect it is a breakthrough, because you are manipulating chemistry, to create a confirmation that can lead you to the analgesia, but it’s safer. So of course, we need to bring this into humans.”
