The Comprehensive Cancer Survivorship Act

The Comprehensive Cancer Survivorship Act was re-introduced in both houses of Congress in June 2023 (S.2213 in the Senate and H.R. 4363 in the House). Children's Cancer Cause worked closely with Hill staff for the last several years on drafting the bill and helping to ensure pediatric cancer survivor provisions were included in its bipartisan introduction.

Children’s Cancer Cause CEO Steve Wosahla speaking at the December 2022 press conference announcing this legislation.

Please join us in thanking Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1), Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11), Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN), and Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) for championing this bill. We look forward to working with them to secure its passage!

More than 95% of childhood cancer survivors will have a significant health related issue by the time they are 45 years of age. Despite many studies and reports over the past twenty years, there is no standard of care for the treatment of these individuals in the primary care setting even though they face significant and unusual health challenges, including hearing loss, osteoporosis, infertility and cardiac late effects.

Several of the provisions in this comprehensive survivorship legislation directly address issues faced by the nation's 500,000 childhood cancer survivors along the continuum of survivorship care.

The bill would promote state innovations to ease transitions from active oncological care to the primary care setting for children with cancer through the creation of a stakeholder work group, a report from the Department of Health and Human Services, and the development of best practices based on the workgroup and report. The bill would also encourage the development of a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation pediatric survivorship care demonstration model, which has been a legislative priority of Children's Cancer Cause for the past several years.

Experts and stakeholders agree regarding the systemic problems that plague survivors over their lifetime – insurance and access barriers, lack of knowledge about how to treat survivors in the primary care setting, the complexity of health conditions experienced by pediatric survivors, and lack of patient knowledge about their status and individual needs as a childhood cancer survivor. However, survivors do not routinely receive explicit guidance – a survivorship care plan – from oncologists about their long-term care needs. Children's Cancer Cause has long advocated the creation of a standard of care for survivorship care planning to address this transition. This bill would take important steps to help further this goal.

We need your help to spread the word about this legislation to Congressional offices. Your voice as a constituent is incredibly powerful. Click the button below to send your Members of Congress a message seeking their co-sponsorship of this bipartisan legislation.