‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Aug. 26, 2007

MR. RUSSERT:  One point three million people this year alone.

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT:  We have 1500 deaths a day of cancer, dead of cancer in this country.  It...

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Every day.

MR. RUSSERT:  It’s staggering.

MR. ARMSTRONG:  9/11 every two days.

MR. RUSSERT:  Tomorrow and Tuesday in Iowa, Cedar Rapids, you are doing what?

MR. ARMSTRONG:  We’re hosting, really, the first ever Livestrong Cancer Forum for, for all the potential candidates, or all the potential presidents, to, to discuss the number one killer in this country, and that’s cancer.

MR. RUSSERT:  If you look at the list of the candidates and how they have been affected by cancer, it’s really striking.

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT:  Sam Brownback, the Kansas senator, has survived melanoma; Hillary Clinton, her mother-in-law died of breast cancer; John Edwards, we know his wife, Elizabeth, battling breast cancer; Rudy Giuliani survived prostate cancer; Mike Huckabee, his wife survived a spinal cancer; John McCain survived melanoma; Barack Obama’s mom died of ovarian cancer; Senator Fred Thompson survived lymphoma.

MR. ARMSTRONG:  That’s right.  And, and there you’re talking about either direct experience or, or, or a family member or, or a wife or a husband.  If you just—if you just go a little broader and you talk about a friend, a neighbor or a classmate, a co-worker it’s 100 percent of the population. This, this touches everybody.  And so—and again, the numbers indicate that, the numbers back that up, and it’s pervasive.  I mean, that’s the only way to really describe it.

MR. RUSSERT:  Senator McCain, Mayor Giuliani, Senator Thompson, all having survived cancer, they’re not participating.  Did they say why?

MR. ARMSTRONG:  I spoke to most of them personally.  Either scheduling conflicts or family time.  You know, for me, listen, I’m not going to sugar-coat it, it’s a disappointment.  When you—when you can’t show up or you, for whatever reason, won’t show up and discuss such a devastating illness, it is a disappointment, especially when you have a close personal history.

MR. RUSSERT:  So far, the Democrats that have accepted are Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich.

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Everybody was invited, of course, and I spoke to almost all of them personally.  It’s our desire and our, and our hope that they—you know, that they would all be there and some still come.  Because, again, the issue is so devastating, and we are really facing an epidemic, and it’s, in fact, going to get worse as the population ages.  That meets a time where we’re cutting funding, cutting resources, cutting morale at the N.C.I.  I think the future commander in chief needs to show up and talk about what kills 600,000 Americans a year.

MR. RUSSERT:  How much money are we spending now on cancer research?

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Well, through the government, we’re spending about six billion a year.

MR. RUSSERT:  Is that enough, in your mind?

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Just to give you an example, I mean, we are, you know, young scientists, the best researchers are actually going outside of this country now to do their job because there’s a lack of funding, which therefore means a lack of morale.  One out of 10 research projects and grants gets funded, one out of 10.  So just 10 percent.  So with more money could you, could you do more?  Obviously.  You have to also consider that, that big pharm also spends money.  But, no, I mean, $6 billion a year sounds like a lot of money, but when you consider other expenses and other issues, I, I don’t think it’s enough.

MR. RUSSERT:  If you were made cancer czar and could wave a wand...

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...and achieve one thing...

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...for the U.S. and its fight against cancer, what would it be?

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Ooh.  I do think we need a cancer czar, first, first of all.

MR. RUSSERT:  Would you like the job?

MR. ARMSTRONG:  I don’t know that I’m the best person for the job.  I could pick somebody that would be very—but I don’t know that I’m the best person. I would certainly support that person.  Very difficult.  I mean, you have to consider the, the disease is complex, so you have to go all the way from what we call the cancer continuum.  So you have to start at prevention.  So let’s just make sure that nobody gets cancer.  So we have to control the things that give people cancer.  So if that’s the environment, if that’s tobacco, if that’s the sun, if—all these things, let’s not, let’s not let anybody get the disease.  And then when they do, let’s make sure that they’re screened in time.  I mean, I could say, if I was the cancer czar, let’s spend, you know, $10 million a year and screen everybody in this country for colon cancer, I’d save 50,000 lives right there.  Done.  And then you go on into the other aspects of it.  And, and people slip through these cracks.  And then they’re in the poor communities of America and they’re not being treated.  So let’s treat everybody with the highest level of care that we all—that, that people in—where you and I live, Tim, let’s say, would get that type of care.  Let’s treat them.  There’s your 200,000 lives.  And then you go on into, you know, more complicated stuff, more complicated types of scientific research, and then, and then, you know, on and on and on.  So it’s, it’s a complicated issue, and, and we can’t get around the fact that it is.

MR. RUSSERT:  How about a no smoking country?

MR. ARMSTRONG:  This entire country today should be smoke free.

MR. RUSSERT:  Do you think there is a cure for cancer and we really will find one?

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Interesting question.  First and foremost, cancer is about 200 diseases.  So I’m sitting here today as an 11-year cancer survivor.  I like to think I’m cured.  You know, meanwhile, half a mile down the street there’s, there’s going to be a 45-year-old mother of three that dies of breast cancer.  It’s a different disease.  They’re treated differently, monitored differently, researched differently.  So we have to look at every little...(unintelligible)...within that disease.  And so—but yeah, there’s a cure.  Of course.  But it comes with, with, with the proper things being put in place and the proper leadership and the proper funding and all of these critical and important things.

MR. RUSSERT:  Talk about yourself.  You were 25 years old, diagnosed with cancer...

MR. ARMSTRONG:  Mm-hmm.

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