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Rep. Brian Higgins

Mr. Speaker, I bring to this House and the Nation great news from Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo. Roswell Park is the first comprehensive cancer institute in the entire Nation.

Today, they are launching a clinical trial to test the use of a cancer vaccine as therapy to kill cancer cells and to prevent a relapse of the disease. The vaccine is designed to boost the body's immune system to fight and destroy cancer cells.

The vaccine has shown early promise in treating ovarian, bladder, brain, and breast cancer. The vaccine's exciting potential is a direct result of many years of cancer research. For cancer research to be effective, it has to be sustained over the longer term. It can't stop and start because you lose promising research and promising researchers.

So my message to Congress today is that the only failure in cancer research is when you quit or you're forced to quit because of a lack of funding. I urge my colleagues to fully fund cancer research in the 2012 budget.