WASHINGTON, D.C.—Dr. M. Sharon Stack always seems to be advancing cancer research. Sometimes, she’s out of the lab and on Capitol Hill.

 

Stack, the Ann F. Dunne and Elizabeth Riley Director of the Harper Cancer Research Institute, met Tuesday with Congressional staffers to advocate for ovarian cancer research. She also attended the sixteenth annual conference of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, where she spoke with fellow cancer researchers, survivors, and patients.

 

On Capitol Hill, Stack met with Health Policy Advisors serving Indiana Senators Donnelly ’77 ’81J.D. and Dan Coats, as well as staff of Indiana Representatives André Carson and Jackie Walorski.

 

Stack specifically emphasized three priorities. She requested $20 million to fund another year of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Ovarian Cancer Research Program, which has distributed $216.45 million in research funding to research laboratories since 1997.

 

She also asked for political support of the Cancer Drug Coverage Parity Act of 2013, which will require greater health insurance coverage of “smart anticancer drugs.” (These drugs are dramatically more expensive than hospital-administered chemotherapy, even though patients can purchase them at the pharmacy and self-administer them at home.)

 

Stack requested that Congress officially recognize September as Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.

By Michael Rodio | July 19, 2013