By Michael Caligiuri, MD, President of the American Association for Cancer Research

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the kind of strong national commitment that exists today to support medical research.

Of course, this enthusiasm is more than justified because of the large number of unprecedented research opportunities that are at the ready to propel us toward defeating cancer and the numerous other diseases that afflict so many Americans.

Congress underscored this commitment in April when it passed the fiscal year 2017 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which provided the National Institutes of Health with its second consecutive $2 billion annual funding increase.

The prior year’s funding increase represented the largest annual funding boost the agency had received in a decade.

Additionally, the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative, one of the key initiatives of the 21st Century Cures Act, was funded at $300 million in FY 2017…

This guest editorial originally appeared on July 21, 2017 in The Cancer Letter. Please click here to read the editorial in its entirety.