Press Materials

 PDF Version |  MS Word Version

Sara Conley
PCI
(312) 558-1770

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATIONAL LUNG CANCER PARTNERSHIP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO LEAD INTEGRATION PANEL FOR LUNG CANCER RESEARCH PROGRAM AT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

MADISON, Wis. (May 07, 2009) – The National Lung Cancer Partnership is pleased to announce the selection of Executive Director Regina Vidaver, PhD., as chair of the Integration Panel for the Lung Cancer Research Program at the Department of Defense. Approved by Congress last fall, the program will aim to speed up improvements in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.

The $20 million Lung Cancer Research Program marks the first congressionally mandated research to focus on lung cancer, the number one cancer killer of men and women in the United States.

“A lack of adequate funding has left lung cancer research stunted and survival rates unmoved for over 20 years,” said Dr. Vidaver. “This program has the potential to break the research progress stalemate and hopefully bring the decrease in lung cancer deaths that is desperately needed.”

The Integration Panel of the Lung Cancer Research Program is composed of physicians, scientists, researchers and consumer advocates, including lung cancer survivors. The panel will develop requests for proposals for the program and recommend an investment strategy for the funds. The panel will solicit proposals that focus on ways to identify, treat and manage early lung cancer and establish a tissue bank.

Dr. Vidaver joined the National Lung Cancer Partnership as executive director in 2001 after serving as a Scientific Programs Manager at the Society for Women’s Health Research in Washington, D.C., where she oversaw programs focused on sex differences in biology. Dr. Vidaver was lead author on a seminal report showing that substantial portions of NIH-funded research had not analyzed data by sex of the subjects, contrary to federal mandate. She also served as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Engineering Fellow at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va.

Dr. Vidaver holds a PhD. in molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BA from Amherst College in Amherst, Mass.

The National Lung Cancer Partnership is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to decreasing deaths due to lung cancer, and helping patients live longer and better, through research, awareness and advocacy.