Dear Sarcoma Foundation of America Supporters,

I would like to thank all of you for being supporters of a great organization. I would also like to ask for your help with the following crisis:

Funding for cancer research from the federal government has remained stagnant in the last few years and has decreased if you factor in inflation. Due to current cuts in federal funding to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), there is a decrease in funding to groups dedicated to running cancer clinical trials. The cuts have been disproportionately levied against current and future sarcoma research trials.

The NCI has mandated budget cuts to the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) and to the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG).  SWOG and ECOG have decided to completely and totally cut their current sarcoma based trials and those planned for the future. The Sarcoma Foundation of America considers this discrimination against sarcoma patients, since sarcoma is being singled out instead of choosing proportional cuts across all cancer types. There is a history of discrimination against funding for rare diseases such as sarcoma and there has been an uphill battle to get the funding and support that it currently has. Sarcomas are a little more than 1% of all adult cancers. We ask for your support and your voice for those who are already suffering from a cancer with no cure and few treatment options. We feel that a grave injustice is being done to the 10,000 to 15,000 patients each year who are diagnosed with sarcoma. 

I strongly urge those who read this to contact your Senators and Congressman and insist they reverse the trend of decreased funding for cancer research. Ask them to actively sponsor and support legislation that will continue to support the strides made in cancer research and not slow down or decrease it as the current and future budget proposals will do. The rarest cancers with the smallest voices are being unfairly targeted and we must not stand for this. Together we can make a change!

To contact your state Congressman, please click here:

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

 To contact your state Senator, please click here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Thank you for your voice and support!

Sincerly,

Matthew Alsante
Executive Director
Sarcoma Foundation of America
malsante@curesarcoma.org
www.curesarcoma.org