May 9, 2022
The Honorable Jodey Arrington
U.S. House of Representatives
1107 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515 

Dear Congressman Arrington, 

We write to express our sincere gratitude for your lead sponsorship of H.R. 1946, the Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act, and share our steadfast commitment to working with you to swiftly enact this important legislation. Congress has a number of urgent priorities, but the fact remains that cancer will take the lives of more than 600,000 Americans this year alone.[1] Working together, we can drive this figure down. 

It is estimated that there will be 139,320 new cancer cases diagnosed in Texas in 2022.[2] For too many of those Americans, their diagnosis will come too late, after the cancer has already spread throughout the body. Late-stage cancer is often fatal. For example, only 6 percent of individuals diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer survive 5 years after their diagnosis.[3] Your support of H.R. 1946 can help change that. 

As you know, new blood-based screenings hold tremendous promise to find cancer earlier, before symptoms arise. By combining the latest advances in genomic sequencing and computing power, multi-cancer tests have shown the ability to detect many cancers from a simple blood draw.[4] These new tools are expected to dramatically expand the benefits of early detection to more cancers, and expand detection’s reach to more settings of care, enabling earlier treatment for a wider range of cancers. First, however, seniors and others at highest risk for developing cancer must have pathways to access in Medicare. 

Building on previous congressional action to provide a coverage pathway for mammograms, pap-smears, and colonoscopies, we stand ready to support Congressional action with the passage of H.R. 1946. This bill will ensure there is equitable access to these multi-cancer tests 

once they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration and are shown to have clinical benefit. 

It is our hope that this bill moves forward to enactment as quickly as possible this year. Thank you again for your leadership on this legislation and on this most important issue. 

Sincerely, 

Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation 

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Texas 

BioNTX 

Breast Cancer Resource Center 

Breast Health Collaborative of Texas 

Coalition of Texans with Disabilities 

Dia de la Mujer Latina 

Fundacion Latinoamericana de Accion Social, Inc. (FLAS) 

National Association of Hispanic Nurses – Houston 

National Association of Social Workers – Texas Chapter 

Regarding Cancer 

Rio Grande Valley Partnership 

Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute 

Texas Healthcare and Bioscience Institute 

Texas Kidney Foundation 

Texas Rare Alliance 

Texas Rural Health Association 

TexHealth Central Texas 

[1] American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2022. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2022. 

[2] Id. 

[3] Id. 

[4] Liu MC, Oxnard GR, Klein EA, Swanton C. Seiden MV. Sensitive and specific multi-cancer detection and localization using methylation signatures in cell-free DNA. Annals of Oncol. 2020; 31(6) 745-759. doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2020.02.011. and Lennon AM, Buchanan AH, Kinde I. et al. Feasibility of blood testing combined with PET-CT to screen for cancer and guide intervention. Science 2020 doi:10.1126/science.abb9601.