MELANOMA

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE RESEARCH

FISCAL 2009

Request.

$5 million for melanoma research in the U.S. Army Research Development Testing and Evaluation account (US Army RDTE) in the Fiscal 2009 Department of Defense Appropriations bill.  This program will be administered by DoD’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.

DoD’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

The Department of Defense’s CDMRP represents a unique partnership among the public, Congress and the military.  The CDMRP was established within the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command in 1993, when Congress, in response to grassroots advocacy efforts, tasked the Department of Defense with developing and managing an innovative breast cancer program.  Since 1993, CDMRP has grown to include programs aimed at other major diseases, including prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, and autism.

All CDMRP program are conducted according to a two-tier review model recommended by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine.  The first tier is a peer review of proposals against established criteria for determining scientific and technical merit.  The second tier is a programmatic review,  conducted by members of the Integration Panel (an advisory board of leading scientists, clinicians, and consumer advocates), that compares proposals against each other and recommends submissions for funding based on scientific merit, relative innovation and impact, portfolio balance, and overall program goals.

Melanoma Facts. 

·         A 2000 Annals of Epidemiology study comparing melanoma mortality among WWII veterans of the Pacific and European Theaters found that Pacific Theater Prisoner of War veterans had an estimated 3-fold higher risk of dying from melanoma than veterans of the European theater.   The article concluded that these data are “consistent with the hypothesis that exposure to high levels of solar radiation in young adulthood is associated with a higher risk of melanoma mortality.” As many serious cases arise many years after the worst exposure, it is likely that we will see increased rates among Korean and Vietnam War veterans as well.

·         With more than 150,000 U.S. Army, National Guard, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Marine personnel currently stationed in Iraq, where the intensity of sun exposure is similar to that of the Pacific, there’s a potential for a long-term risk of melanoma mortality, if the conclusions of the 2000 Annals study are proven correct.

·         According to the American Academy of Dermatology, skin cancer is the most prevalent of all types of cancer; we know that more than one million Americans develop skin cancer every year.

·         Malignant melanoma is the most deadly of all skin cancers.  Every year, an estimated 8,000 Americans will die from melanoma.

·         Nearly 60,000 Americans will develop melanoma annually. Melanoma is the sixth most common type of new cancer diagnosis in U.S. men and women.

·         The mortality rate of melanoma for persons ages 16 to 29 is exceeded only by breast cancer, cervical cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

·         The incidence rate of melanoma in women ages 25 to 29 is second only to the rate for thyroid cancer. 

·         Deaths from melanoma have increased more than 100 percent in the past 30 years for men ages 55-80.