On Sept. 22, during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ-5) announced at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Bergen in Montvale that he has introduced the bipartisan "Kylie's Law" with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY-17). The bill would require at least two childhood cancer experts on the coalitions that develop state cancer control plans. It is named for Kylie Cooperman, the daughter of a close friend. Born in Englewood, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 4 and died last year at 19. New Jersey has the nation's third-highest childhood cancer rate, with about 440 diagnoses each year.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-New Jersey's 5th District) announced at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Bergen in Montvale that he has introduced the bipartisan Kylie's Voices for Childhood Cancer Act, known as "Kylie's Law," with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York's 17th District). The bill would ensure that childhood cancer experts take part in the coalitions that draft each state's comprehensive cancer control plan, so that children's needs are not left out of plans built around adult cancers.
Kylie Cooperman, for whom the bill is named, was born in Englewood and raised in Chappaqua, New York. A few weeks before her fourth birthday, she was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a fast-growing childhood brain tumor. After surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, she was declared cancer-free. But the cancer returned as she was starting her freshman year at the University of Delaware, and she died on Sept. 10, 2025, at age 19. Gottheimer said Kylie's father, Adam Cooperman, has been his close friend since college and that the two were in each other's weddings. "Kylie should be a junior in college right now. Instead, her parents are here today, fighting 'Kylie style' so that no other family has to go through the same thing," he said.
"New Jersey Has the Nation's 3rd-Highest Childhood Cancer Rate, With 440 Cases a Year"
Every state has a comprehensive cancer coalition that develops a long-term cancer control plan, but only about one-third of states include specific childhood cancer goals in those plans. New Jersey has the nation's third-highest childhood cancer rate, with about 440 children and teens diagnosed each year, and nearly 1,900 cases have occurred in Bergen, Passaic and Sussex counties over the past 25 years. Children respond to chemotherapy and radiation differently from adults and recover differently, according to Gottheimer's office. Yet it takes an average of six and a half years after adult clinical trials for a cancer drug to be tested in children, and treatments for sarcomas and brain tumors lag by nearly 20 years.
Kylie's Law would require at least two childhood cancer experts on the cancer coalitions of states that receive federal funding. It would create a Childhood Cancer Advisory Committee within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with participation from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and childhood cancer survivors and caregivers. It would also name childhood cancer as an allowable use of the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, so states can support families affected by childhood cancer with existing federal funds. In New Jersey, state Sen. Joe Lagana and Assembly members Lisa Swain and Chris Tully will introduce a state bill that would write childhood cancer representation on the state coalition into law. Gottheimer also plans to introduce a resolution designating Nov. 13, which would have been Kylie's 21st birthday, as "Kylie's Day."
Attending the announcement were state Sen. Holly Schepisi; Dr. Andrew Kung, chief of pediatrics at MSK; Dr. Ira Dunkel, a pediatric oncologist; the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation; the Christopher Brandl Joy of Life Foundation; Kylie's parents, Adam and Hayley Cooperman; and family and friends. MSK Bergen, which opened in Montvale in 2024, is an outpatient facility where patients from northern New Jersey can receive treatment without traveling to Manhattan. MSK Kids, where Kylie was treated, was named last week to U.S. News & World Report's list of the nation's best children's hospitals.