History was made last week as Congress passed the Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research Act of 2017, or the Childhood Cancer STAR Act. The bill will now move on to be signed into law and efforts will begin to ensure it is properly funded. The STAR Act is designed to maximize discovery, and accelerate development and availability of promising childhood cancer treatments and has been a focus of CKc’s and other pediatric cancer foundations’ lobbying efforts for years. This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide support to collect the medical specimens and information of children, adolescents, and young adults with selected cancers that have the least effective treatments in order to achieve a better understanding of these cancers and the effects of treatment. The STAR Act is the most comprehensive childhood cancer bill ever voted on by Congress and had wide bi-partisan support. We’d like to thank representatives Michael McCaul, G. K. Butterfield, Jackie Speier, and Mike Kelly for leading the efforts to get it passed and to all pediatric cancer advocates who lobbied hard for this bill! A major win for the kids!