The Head and Neck Cancer Alliance - Oral, Head, and Neck Cancer

Women In Government is proud to have worked with The Head and Neck Cancer Alliance, formerly the Yul Brynner Head and Neck Cancer Foundation, that has been active since 1984. Initially, the group’s efforts concentrated on educating the public about the harmful effects of tobacco and its relationship to oral cancers. For every year since 1998, the group has expanded its outreach efforts to include not only education, but also free oral, head and neck cancer screenings in local communities. Many healthcare facilities around the world participate in Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week (OHANCAW) each year to provide free screenings and education to the public.

To learn more about this organization, visit their website at www.headandneck.org.

Recent Events

November 2011

At Women In Government’s Second Annual Healthcare Summit one session provided an overview of the three cancers, but primarily focused on their impact on patients and the healthcare system and trends in prevention and screening. The expert panelists also discussed the public policy implications for the diseases.

The first speaker, David Pugach, is the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) Associate Director for Federal Relations responsible for lobbying on budget and appropriations issues. Prior to joining ACS CAN, he served as the Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute Office of Government and Congressional Relations. He spoke about his work developing and leading the ACS CAN Congressional advocacy program for increasing funding for federal cancer research and control programs. To learn more, please view his presentation here.

The second speaker, Dr. Barnett Kramer is the Deputy Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention for the National Cancer Institute. He spoke about his extensive experience in primary cancer prevention studies, as well as clinical screening trials of lung, ovarian, breast, and prostate cancers. He is an investigator and on the steering committee for two large cancer screening trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute: the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, Ovarian (PLCO) Trial; and the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). To learn more, please view his presentation here.
 

July 2011

At Women In Government's Oncology Task Force, a new aspect of oncology was a featured topic. With more than 40,000 cases diagnosed annually, oral, head, and neck cancers are the sixth most common form of cancer in the United States. This session featured an overview of the diseases, prevalence, treatments and research in this field. Dr. Amy Chen showed legislators the results of how these types of cancer affect the body and the ways in which legislators may be able to play a role raising awareness or supporting better access to diagnosis and treatment. To view her presentation, please click here.