What kind of research is going on in rare cancers like ACC?
Most cancer patients assume that significant research is being carried out on their particular cancer. For those patients with the most common 20 or so cancers, that is true. For example, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and other organizations spend billions of dollars each year to support basic research into breast, prostate, colon and lung cancer. Additionally, private pharmaceutical companies spend even more seeking new therapies for those types of cancer. However, for those patients with one of the more than 100 rare cancers, there is little consolation. Although rare cancers (defined by the National Institutes of Health as those affecting fewer than 200,000 persons in the United States) make up one-quarter of all cancer cases and mortalities, the vast majority of research funding goes to the common cancers while rare cancers are ignored. Currently, the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society do not fund any ACC-specific research. Rare c
