WASHINGTON — Dr. Thomas Gross remembers one of the goals of an ailing Caroline Pryce Walker when the brave 9-year-old daughter of Rep. Deborah Pryce was battling cancer.

Caroline lost her fight to neuroblastoma in 1999, but on Wednesday the U.S. House is expected to approve legislation written by her mother that will go a long way toward achieving the little girl's dream, said Gross, the head of oncology at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

Before she died, Caroline told Pryce and her father, Randy Walker, that she had a vision that any child with cancer would have the hope of being cured.

“This bill in a real way puts some meat and teeth behind Caroline's vision,” Gross said. “It goes a long way toward reaching that goal where every child, no matter what their diagnosis, has a real chance for a cure.”

The legislation provides for $150 million during five years for expanded pediatric-cancer research and establishes a national childhood-cancer database. A Senate version has gained committee approval and appears on track to pass that full body soon.

The legislative victory, which had been scheduled for today before House schedulers moved it to Wednesday, is happening as Pryce, R-Upper Arlington, prepares to retire from Congress this year after eight terms. In recent years she has spent a lot of time working for the bill, which, before being voted out of a House committee, was renamed by her colleagues the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act of 2008.

“It is a wonderful thing that has happened on my way out,” Pryce said Monday at a Washington fundraiser for Hope Street Kids, the foundation she and ex-husband Walker formed to raise money and advocate for pediatric cancer causes. “We have been at this for several terms now, and it's just really heartwarming that it's finally reached critical mass point where it can happen.”

The legislation would expand National Cancer Institute research into childhood cancer by authorizing an additional $30 million a year for five years.

It also sets up the first comprehensive national pediatric-cancer database in an effort to better assess trends in childhood cancers and come up with the elusive causes of many pediatric cancers. And the bill provides education and outreach to families affected by childhood cancers in an effort to ensure they have a better chance of knowing about and accessing the best treatments.

The bill has bipartisan support.

Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., said legislation such as Pryce's is one of the reasons he ran for the House in 2006. Nearly three years ago, Sestak's daughter, Alexandra, now 7, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor when Sestak was a vice admiral in the Navy.

Now, Sestak not only supports Pryce's pediatric cancer bill, he intends to become the congressional point person for Hope Street Kids once Pryce retires and also help set up a pediatric-cancer congressional caucus.

Pryce has “done God's work thus far,” Sestak said. “I hope to continue it with her.”

jriskind@dispatch.com