Clinton unveils goal of breast cancer cure

Democrat Hillary Clinton used "The Ellen Degeneres Show" today as a forum to call for finding a cure for breast cancer within a decade.

Clinton's proposal would pump $300 million more a year into research for new treatments and uncovering possible genetic and environmental links, plus expanding access to treatment and screenings for low-income women. The money would go to the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.

“I know your mom is a survivor, and we've lost my incredible mother-in-law to breast cancer during Bill's first term and first year in office, and I've just been really committed. I've had so many friends, and we all know people who survived and people who haven't. And I just think we should set a goal of curing breast cancer within the next decade,” Clinton said on the show. “We should make it absolutely totally curable, and I also really want to try to figure out what causes it, because we just don't know why some people are susceptible. I think it's probably a combination of your genes and your environment and your behavior, but we don't know quite how all that fits together and we haven't done enough research, and we also have to get to universal healthcare, which means quality, affordable healthcare for everyone.”

Last year, about 40,000 women died of breast cancer in the United States; about 240,000 new cases are expected to be diagnosed this year.