Cancer Patients Urge Senator Sanders to Support Life-Saving Pediatric Cancer Bill

Cancer patients across the country are calling on Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to reverse his position on a critical piece of legislation that could provide access to life-saving treatments for children battling cancer.

Jacob Knudsen, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at age 12, is among those advocating for the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act. Knudsen has endured nearly two dozen surgeries and multiple rounds of chemotherapy after tumors were discovered on his organs.

“There is something currently in my lung, and there’s a 50-50 chance that it’s cancer,” Knudsen, now a college student from California, told the New York Post. “I’m willing to bleed, I’m willing to lose limbs, I’m willing to lose organs, I’m willing to do anything just to survive.”

The bipartisan bill is named after Knudsen’s friend, a fellow osteosarcoma patient who died last year at age 16. If passed, the legislation would allow pediatric cancer patients to participate in clinical trials and ensure their access to cutting-edge treatments. It would incentivize the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and pharmaceutical companies to conduct more pediatric cancer studies and invest in treatments for rare pediatric diseases.

While the bill passed unanimously in the House of Representatives, its progress stalled in the Senate when Senator Sanders objected. Despite his long history of advocating for improved healthcare, Sanders demanded additional provisions be attached to the bill, including funding for community health centers.

Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), who brought the bill to the Senate floor, accused Sanders of playing politics with children’s lives. “Everything their senator from Vermont just talked about was political,” Mullin said. “I’m talking about giving kids a chance to live an extra day or a lifetime. This has nothing to do with politics.”

Sanders defended his position, stating that he had no problem with the legislation itself but wanted to include an amendment to fund community health centers across the country. “This is not a radical amendment,” Sanders said. “I’m not coming here saying, ‘Let’s do something we’ve not talked about.’ I am talking about doing what Republicans and Democrats agreed to a year ago.”

The stalemate has frustrated cancer advocacy groups who see the bill as a straightforward solution to a critical healthcare need. Nancy Goodman, executive director of Kids v Cancer, whose 10-year-old son Jacob died from medulloblastoma in 2009, highlighted the broader implications of the bill’s failure to advance.

“The bill would ensure the most innovative, promising pediatric cancer clinical studies are conducted, and it would incentivize companies to develop novel, potentially curative drugs for these kids,” Goodman told the New York Post. “How can we say Congress is functioning if it can’t pass the easiest bill that one can ever imagine? This is a bill that has bipartisan support that saves the lives of children with cancer that costs taxpayers nothing, and yet they can’t pass it.”

The legislation addresses a critical gap in pediatric cancer research, where funding and pharmaceutical development often lag behind adult cancer treatments. Childhood cancers frequently differ biologically from adult cancers, requiring specialized research and treatment approaches. With approximately 15,000 children diagnosed with cancer annually in the United States, advocates stress that the bill’s passage could transform treatment options for these young patients.

Anderson Coy, a 21-year-old cancer patient, suggested that politicians should speak directly with those affected by cancer to understand the stakes. “I would probably tell [politicians] to talk to someone [diagnosed with cancer], just to see what they’re going through,” Coy said.

Knudsen emphasized the broader implications of failing to act quickly on such legislation. “The sooner we pass acts like this, the more lives we save,” he said. “How many children have died from cancer? How many of those were the next Albert Einstein that never made it? These kids could solve the world’s problems.”

As the legislative impasse continues, cancer patients and their families remain hopeful that Congress will find a path forward for this potentially life-saving bill.