I am karen brooks. I want to thank you both for a lifetime of science. Can you speak to the state of research and treatment for brain cancer and other such forms of cancer . We have made tremendous progress across many different fronts. Among the most challenging, to diseases i spent time studying in my laboratory is the brain cancer that took senator kennedys life and also pancreas cancer. There has been a tremendous amount of basic science work that has given us the atlas of genes in those cancers, really outstanding genetic model systems that help us understand what those genes do, but we are faced with converting noninformation into therapies that truly treat those diseases. I am cautiously optimistic of early data beginning to emerge in the immunotherapy space which may give us a foothold upon which we can build quite rapidly. A good example, another disease we studied because it is a very lent disease virulent diseases melanoma. In 2009 there were very few advances that had any impact on survival. With the advent of this new enemy in therapy, we have 23 percent of patients that appear to be cured. These are patients out 13 years. This is within six to nine months. 23 we have durable responses and now the addition of another immune modulating drug appears to be generating similar results in the majority of patients. Maybe be 80 . We cannot say yet because it hasnt been around long enough. It could be in the next five years we may have 80 , 90 cure of those with advanced disease. The perspective is there was nothing for these individuals, no hope, and thats the example of science being converted into new lifesaving drugs. I think with some of these other diseases, if we can get a crack on the armor, we can build with combinations, because we have this Enormous Technology to really figure out what is going on with these complex diseases. Thats difficult. We have getting drugs in. There is a whole bunch. The same thing with pen creat a cancer, issues relating to drug penetration. Pancreatic cancer, relating to drug penetration. We need a special effort in each of these areas. This is a great opportunity, but we need a stronger critical mass. I would say another word about the immunotherapy approach. This is so exciting. It has been built on efforts many thought was never going to pay off. Science magazine calling cancer immunotherapy the breakthrough of the year, not just in medical research, in all science. Cancer immunotherapy was the most exciting thing to happen in the view of the editors. One already talked about the way people like allison figured out a way to unleash the system. You find out how do you bring it back to life, that there is another, even more sophisticated approach where you not only activate the immune system in a general way, but you train those t cells to go after a target you identified in the tumor, and you basically give those cells instructions. You educate them about what their target should be. Its the chimeric antigen strategy developed by a number of groups. There is a paper describing dramatic results with the approach in leukemias and lymphomas, but it has been tried in brain cancer. There is a trial on going. I happen to be watching it closely, because a dear friend of mine is one of the participants. A woman who lives in michigan, and she comes back every couple months to see what happened. She is now two years out without any evidence of regrowth, which is pretty good. Thats an anecdote, but it is a fascinating strategy. Its using the approach, which she refers to as her ninja warriors going after those cells that need to be wiped out. Its really tough. Nobody stuck with brain tumors were pancreatic cancer would say this is anything but a tough problem. There are all kinds of problems. I would say we have a better set of ideas and strategies than we have ever had. We ought to put every bit of energy into making this real. You talked about some kinds of cancer that are essentially cured now. What is going to be the kind of cancer that is the last one to solve . Would it be brain and pen creat a cancer . What do you think . Pancreatic cancer . What do you think . But there are challenges with diseases that show heterogeneity. I would not pay one cancer. Those cancers such as lung cancer, cancer colon cancer, it is as if there is a hand grenade in the nucleus, and there is massive regeneration of the genome. This is why it is so exciting because it is designed to go after complexity. It has many billions of combinations that can deploy to identify heterogeneity, and the targeted therapy does not elicit those responses unless used in that combination. It is the category of disease or which there has been wholesale change in the genome. This is why if we can get the detection of cancer much earlier at a time in the history of an aspiring cancer to be able to intervene at a point where there are fewer cells, they have less levels of genetic alteration, i think the fight is one that could be one more readily won more readily. Its the combination, but brain cancer is a tough problem. And greedy as cancer is a tough problem, in part because we not pen creat take pancreatic cancer is a tough problem, in part because we do not have a way to get adequate amount of drugs to the system. But i would not expect melanoma would be one of the early successes, so i am totally unable to predict what will be the last one. We are constantly humbled. We have about five more minutes. We have lots more questions. I am a head and neck cancer survivor, not caused by the hpv virus. I have a great interest in the vaccine. Do you feel someday it will be mandatory . As part of our initiative, we have embarked on a number of cancers where we are trying to push policy education on a variety of different fronts, be it tobacco or vaccines. I think it is an enormous missed opportunity for us not to vaccinate all of our children during the window of opportunity. Girls and boys. There is an epidemic amongst men. There is no pap smear like Cervical Cancer where we can identify these cancers early and it extracts a very significant toll on these individuals. We have hopefully later this year and early next year the fda may approve a vaccine. This is a unique opportunity we have where we can inspire our legislative bodies across the country to enact appropriate guidelines so we can really protect our children. It is an incredibly safe incredibly effective vaccine. This is what we have been dreaming for. A vaccine that can prevent cancer from happening in the first place. This is manna from heaven. We need to take advantage of this, because anybody who feels this vaccine should not be given, i would ask them to come with me and do one examination of a patient with advanced head and neck cancer, advanced Cervical Cancer, and you tell me what the appropriate case of action should have been for those individuals decades earlier. It is a childcare responsibility. We as adults have a solemn responsibility to protect the health and wellbeing of future generations. I have three children, ages 10 12, and 13, all vaccinated. One boy and two girls. You saw what a political football that became in your state of texas. I think the approach was one the approach governor perry took was one where he did the right thing but did not engage in the appropriate instruction needed so there would be grassroots consensus. We will approach the legislation or legislature in texas and a variety of other states so we can educate our legislators of the opportunity. Its important to appreciate. This gets mixed up in sexual promiscuity. There is one time between ages nine and 13 where there is optimal immune responsiveness to the vaccine. That is the window of opportunity. Its not like you could wait later on and say, lets make a decision at a later time. 80 of the worlds population is infected when they become adults. The vaccine does not work as effectively or at all later on. The time to give this lifesaving vaccine that can prevent over 400,000 deaths worldwide is in those ages, and we must do it as a society. Did you want to add anything . I totally agree. One last question. But if you can address using viruses if you can address viruses to treat cancer. Do you have hope in that area . I will just say a word. The way in which we have tried to approach cancer has many different avenues. Small molecules, biologic antibodies, and of course more traditional things like radiation, surgery. The virus approach often is you are trying to arm the virus to specifically go after the cancer cells. Often it is a virus you engineered. I think there have been advances in that regard, some of them in brain cancer, what not to the point where we can fully see how that is going to provide a major new weapon we want to use against most cancers. There are many viruses being utilized to try to take advantage of differences in cancer cells versus normal cells , that viruses may replicate in cancer cells versus not replicating. This provides opportunities to really disrupt those cancer cells and lead to death of the cancer cells, but as francis mentioned, this is not as effective as one would imagine on the basis of that particular approach and paradigm. However, those viruses that are new antigens, when combined with immune modulation may provide significant opportunities to train the immune system to recognize not only viral particles but bystander mutations that are occurring in the cancer cell, so it may really prime the immune system further. There is exciting work going on with a particular engineered virus and brain cancer, which is showing impressive result that in a subset of patients. We need to understand why some patients are responding versus not. Those are exciting opportunities. I think that estimate is going to need to be combined with other modalities to bring out the full potential. Quest were out of time. I want to thank you for such an interesting we in just a moment we will hear more on cancer nutrition research. And then we will take a look at some of the legislative priorities for the new year. And discussion on the use of the Death Penalty in todays criminal justice system. On the next washington journal, a look ahead to the 2016 president ial race, with political consultants. And then a discussion on the rising costs of Higher Education with the Senior Writer for the chronicle of Higher Education. And we will take your phone calls and comments on facebook and twitter. Ive everyday at 7 a. M. Eastern, on cspan. Monday night, amy mitchell, of the few research center, on Political Polarization and where people get their news. We look at facebook in particular, they are still the largest outlet that has the greatest percentage of the American Public using it in terms of sites. About half said they got political news from facebook of the last week. That puts social media and facebook in particular about on par with local television and the other top outlets. So it clearly does play a role in peoples information environments. What we found when we broke down the differences, ideologically is that the consistent conservatives were much more likely to have circles of friends and see political posts that are more aligned with their own political thinkings. More so than a mix or consistent liberals. But consistent liberals are much more likely to actually defend someone, to drop someone because of their political views. Monday night at 8 p. M. Eastern, on cspan two. Now, a cancer survivor, congressman bobby spot, discussing Cancer Research at an hourlong event hosted by the Cancer Innovation coalition. On behalf of the Cancer Coalition members with executive board of directors of National Patient advocate foundation, our ceo was not in attendance with us today, but certainly sends you his greetings and is gratitude for your attendance. Thank you for being here with us today. In our country today, 1600 people will die of cancer. Every single day of this year, 1600 people will die of cancer. By year end, we will have had 585,720 people in the United States who will succumb to cancer. Our nation will have spent 201. 5 billion in Health Care Costs to fight cancer and to provide treatment to the 1. 6 million americans who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. These statistics are not numbers. They are families. They are futures not realized, and they are failures. That we all share as we have been waging this war on cancer that was declared 50 years ago. We have made progress. Between 1998 and 2000, Life Expectancy for Cancer Patients increased by approximately four years, which translated to 23 million additional years of life and roughly 1. 9 trillion in value added to the economy. In an article entitled an economic evaluation of the war on cancer. On behalf of every family in our nation who has mourned the loss of a loved one, thank you for being here today to listen and to learn about the work of the Cancer Innovation coalition through project innovation. Cancer cures are born of innovation. You will be addressed by experts. They will include our first speaker, congressman robert scott, and i must say our dear congressman, whom i will formally introduce in a moment. The panel that will address you includes dr. Edith mitchell, John Harrington, and heather. Allow me to introduce each panelist to you briefly. Dr. Edith mitchell is an oncologist, Board Certified in internal medicine and oncology and a clinical professor at the department of medicine. A medical Oncology Program leader. Gastrointestinal oncology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson university and associate director for diversity programs and director of the center to eliminate cancer disparities for the Sidney KimmelCancer Center at jefferson. Dr. Mitchell has spent her medical career helping individuals in medically underserved areas. She has published more than 100 articles in this United States. She is known throughout this country as a retired Brigadier General. The first Brigadier General female africanamerican in the United States. Her leadership in this country is well documented in the numerous awards she has received, from the military, from the association of Cancer Centers, so it is a privilege to have her also as a member of the Scientific Committee of the National Patient advocate foundation to address you. John harrington is recently retired. He spent his entire 36year career with the Legacy Companies of sanofi. He distinguished himself by the late great teams and producing outstanding results. He retired as a Senior Vice President and chief commercial officer for global oncology. He built a commercial team in cambridge, massachusetts and also staffed the regions with commercial oncology. Previous to this role, he led the u. S. Oncology business unit. Since his retirement, he now serves on multiple boards in the United States. Including somerset Regional Health center, the ada industry advisory board, the concord cancer foundation. It is a privilege to have john with us today. There is a saying we have, and that is the patient never gets it wrong. The speaker you will certainly enjoy as well is Heather Falwell are. She is a graduate of American University and washington, d. C. , and she now enjoys traveling to exotic locations around the world with her husband, jeff. She lives in maryland with her husband, son, and two rescued cats. Her hobbies include vegetable gardens, sewing, and home decorating. In the spring of 2012, she was diagnosed with stage four cancer following a craniotomy. Her story is compelling. You will certainly enjoy all that she has to share with you. It is my privilege to also share, you will be addressed today by several biomedical researchers and clinicians who while not in this room, has sent their message to you via videotape. You will and today session with the message as well from dr. Janet woodcock of the food and Drug Administration another representatives from the research community. It is a privilege not to be able to introduce to you formally commerce men robert c scott. He is currently serving his 11th term in congress. Prior to that, he served in the house of representatives in virginia as a delegate from 1978 to 1988. In the senate of virginia from 1983 until 1995. He has distinguished himself in his career with a passion for health care initiatives, but he also serves on the subcommittee for civil rights and Civil Liberties of all americans. As part of his commitment to the developing of universal health care for all and previous congresses, representative scott introduced the all healthy children act to ensure millions of uninsured children would be ensured. He likewise worked to get that same provision into the Affordable Care act. He is a man of compassion. He is the son of a physician and it is a privilege to introduce to you representative scott. [applause] thank you for your kind introduction, and thank you for all that you do. Hampton roads is the proud home of the Patient Advocate Foundation, and you have obviously used your experiences with your friends dealing with health care to help others. People are faced with many challenges of what choices in health care they will pursue and how to pay for those choices and the Patient Advocate Foundation has helped hundreds of thousands of people navigate the health care system. They are also a reliable resou