By Donita Naylor
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Senate has passed, by voice vote, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act, which would coordinate research of the forms of cancer that have the lowest survival rates, the senator's staff announced in a news release.
The bill is an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which could gain approval as early as Thursday night, the release said.
Advancements in the fight against pancreas, lung, liver, and ovarian cancers have lagged behind gains made in fighting all cancers, which improved from 50 to 67 percent in the last 40 years, Whitehouse's office said.
Lung cancer, the No. 1 cancer killer in the United States, has a five-year survival rate of less than 16 percent.