H.R. 4897 and its Senate companion, S. 2358, aim to close a research gap in one of the deadliest cancers affecting American women.
The bipartisan bill was introduced in the 115th Congress, with Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) as lead Senate sponsor and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) as cosponsor; a House version moved in parallel.
Lung cancer has outpaced breast cancer as the top cancer killer of American women since 1987, and the trend hasn’t reversed. According to the American Cancer Society, roughly 193 women die of lung cancer every day in the U.S., about one every seven minutes, with an estimated 70,500 deaths projected for 2018 alone.
What’s drawing new attention is who’s getting sick: incidence among women under 60 has climbed sharply in the past decade, and women make up about two-thirds of lung cancer cases diagnosed in people who’ve never smoked, a pattern researchers still don’t fully understand.
The goal: conducting interagency studies
The bill doesn’t fund treatment directly. Instead, it directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, working with the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, to conduct an interagency study. That study would review existing federal research on women and lung cancer, identify knowledge gaps, and recommend a coordinated federal research strategy going forward. It also calls for evaluating environmental and genomic factors that may explain why lung cancer behaves differently in women, and for advancing imaging technology to improve early risk assessment and diagnosis.
Beyond research, the bill pushes for two practical outcomes: a national lung cancer screening strategy with the infrastructure and staffing to reach underserved populations, and a coordinated public education campaign on lung cancer’s disproportionate impact on women and the importance of catching it early.
Focus on women
The bill reflects a broader pattern in lung cancer research. Historically, funding and public messaging around the disease centered on smoking-related risk in men, but a growing body of data shows the picture for women, especially never-smokers, doesn’t fit that model. Advocacy groups including GO2 for Lung Cancer have backed the legislation as a first step toward understanding that gap.
The bill did not pass during the 115th Congress. Similar versions were reintroduced in later sessions, including 2021 and 2023, each time gaining new cosponsors while awaiting action.