Armstrong Urges Overhaul of Cancer-Fighting Efforts

WASHINGTON — World cycling champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong called Thursday for a dramatic overhaul of the way the nation deals with a disease afflicting an estimated 12 million Americans.

The suffering caused by cancer could be substantially reduced, he said, by cutting back on cigarette marketing that targets youth, expanding screening for colon and breast cancer and increasing patient participation in clinical research.

Beyond prevention and treatment, cancer patients deserve care that takes into consideration all of their potential, regardless of their prognosis, Armstrong told the Senate Health Committee.

"We all deserve a high quality of life," said Armstrong, who survived a 1996 diagnosis of testicular cancer and went on to win the Tour de France a record-breaking seven times and to become the father of three children.

"A cancer survivor deserves to have children, to continue on with their job," he said. "And if they want to go out and get back on their bike for some crazy reason and win seven Tours, they deserve to be able to do that."

Armstrong, 36, is the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, an Austin, Texas, nonprofit organization devoted to improving prevention and care for patients of cancer, which takes the lives of more than half a million Americans each year.

For terminally ill cancer patients, Armstrong said, efforts are needed to improve the quality of their last days.

"They deserve to die in peace and surrounded by family," said Armstrong. "They don't deserve to die in pain."

One of the best-known sports figures of his generation, Armstrong's public image is of the smiling athlete wearing the yellow victory jersey atop his road racing bike as he crossed the finish line of the grueling Tour de France. He won the tour an unprecedented seven times - winning consecutive Tours from 1999 to 2005, when he retired from competitive racing.

On Thursday, though, he wore a white shirt and charcoal grey suit, the uniform favored by men who testify before congressional committees. The only flash of triumph yellow came from the Livestrong wristband he wore, emblematic of his cause.

"People don't like to hear that the system is broken," said Armstrong. "But some things have to change."

A particular irritant to Armstrong is the way cigarette companies appeal to teens in an attempt to attract youthful consumers to a lifetime habit with strong links to cancer.

"Tobacco, use and abuse, would be the number one thing," Armstrong said in response to a question about how he might prioritize cancer prevention efforts.

"It's an addictive drug that is marketed and targeted to the youth of America," said Armstrong. "As a father of three and a cancer survivor, that's troubling."

And if Americans over the age of 50 would all be screened for colon cancer, Armstrong said, 30,000 lives a year could be saved, cutting the death rate from that form of cancer in half.

Timely breast exams could cut women's breast cancer deaths by nearly a third, he said, but only one American in five currently gets such preventive care.

And only about 5 percent of Americans suffering with cancer are involved in clinical trials that could lead to more effective treatment, said Armstrong.

"If we can enroll more people in clinical trials, we would have much more success," he said.

Committee chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., helped legislate the National Cancer Act, which put the disease toward the front of the national health agenda in 1971 - the year Armstrong was born.

Kennedy, though, assailed the current approach to the disease as "fragmented and piecemeal," saying the research, prevention and treatment need to be better integrated.

"We must move from a magic bullet approach to a mosaic of care," said Kennedy.