Charles D. Blanke, MD

On behalf of the millions of Americans with cancer, whose very lives depend on our nation’s investment in oncology research, we ask that you join us now in urging congressional lawmakers to do the right thing: pass robust funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.

While the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) groups remain open for business during the pandemic, it’s not business as usual. For good reason, clinical trials are taking a backseat to clinical care. Leadership and members themselves face significant challenges treating oncology patients, as attention and resources are diverted to minister to those with COVID-19.

Oncologists must confront end-of-life issues on a nearly daily basis. Our approach to the potential death of a patient may change over time, however, depending on the patients' diagnosis and stage, where those patients are in their treatment plan, and, of course, what the patients' wishes are. When feasible, our primary goal is to prevent death from cancer, and when we cannot achieve that, we try to delay death as long as we can. When dying seems inevitable, we do our best to make it as comfortable as possible.

After months of training, hundreds of hours spent in a high-altitude sleep tent, and almost a week spent ascending the mountain, our climbing group was destined to have only 12 minutes at Mt. Kilimanjaro's summit. However, that was enough to pay tribute to the 200,000 heroes who have participated in more than a half-century of SWOG cancer clinical trials.

Rising 19,341 feet above sea level, Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest freestanding mountain in the world. It is a dormant but non-extinct volcano which last erupted some 150,000 years ago.