Continue CPRIT Cancer Research Funding

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) was created in 2007 when Texas voters supported legislation setting aside $3 billion for cancer research and prevention. Since then, results have been measurable and effective. In addition to clinical services that have reached every county in Texas, more than 1,200 grants have been awarded to fund cancer research, product development, and cancer prevention. That amounts to up to $300 million in grant funding annually with 90% dedicated to cancer research. Those dollars have brought world-class research teams and amazing recognition to Texas.

One CPRIT scholar, Jim Allison, PhD, chair of Immunology and executive director of the Immunotherapy Platform at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for launching an effective new way to attack cancer by treating the immune system rather than the tumor. Another, Sean Morrison, PhD of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. A CPRIT grantee, Livia Schiavinato Eberlin PhD, an assistant professor of chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin, won a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, unofficially called a “Genius Grant”.

CPRIT is governed by an appointed nine-member Oversight Committee, who operate under a Code of Conduct and Ethics. CPRIT grants are merit-based and peer reviewed and given to Texas-based entities and institutions for cancer-related research, product development and the delivery of cancer prevention programs.

In my area, the Angelina County & Cities Health District participates with researchers at UT Tyler and with the American Cancer Society to provide colorectal cancer screening and prevention services to indigent and uninsured patients in the East Texas area. This is but one example of how CPRIT funding reaches a local community and an underserved population.

But CPRIT funding is at risk. Legislators are being asked to authorize $600 million in funding for CPRIT over the next two years as well as to pass a bonding authority bill that would ensure sustainability of CPRIT for another 10 years. Programs like CPRIT cannot limp along a year or two at a time; they need sustained funding in order to plan, implement, complete, and report out research and prevention successes and failures.

Some have questioned whether or not CPRIT funding, while “unquestionably noble”, is really an essential function of state government. I get it. But, CPRIT is more than cancer research and prevention. It is an investment in our state and our economy. More than 98,000 jobs have been created and $10.9 billion in economic activity has been generated through CPRIT programs. Ray Perryman, president and CEO of the Perryman Group, an economic and financial analysis firm based in Waco, Texas, said that for every dollar taxpayers have invested into CPRIT since 2007, Texas has gained $2 in tax revenue.

Public opinion is behind CPRIT as well. According to a poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, 70% of Texans would support reauthorizing the legislature to increase the bond issue for CPRIT by another $3 billion to extend the program for another 10 years. Nine out of ten voters (89%) say it is important for Texas to remain a national leader in cancer research and prevention by providing state funds for CPRIT.

Texas is doing the right thing when it comes to cancer research and prevention. We can all get behind CPRIT: for cancer research, for Texas, and for our future.

Colorectal Cancer Screening: 80% by 2018

Katie Couric has raised awareness of colorectal cancer ever since her husband died of the disease in 1998. Yet colorectal cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, only surpassed by lung cancer. Both are preventable: lung cancer by not smoking, and colorectal cancer by screening for and removing precancerous polyps.

The American Cancer Society has teamed up with the CDC (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and other organizations to set an ambitious goal of screening 80% of eligible people for colorectal cancer by the year 2018. Screening for colorectal cancer is incredibly important because removing precancerous polyps actually prevents colorectal cancer. Across the nation, if 80% of the eligible population gets screened, it would prevent 277,000 new cases of colorectal cancer and 203,000 deaths (270 of those in Angelina County!) within 20 years. Those are staggering numbers.

Why so high? Because one in three adults in the United States between ages 50 and 75 – about 23 million people – are not getting tested as recommended. In Texas in 2016, there will be 9,680 new cases of colorectal cancer and 3,520 deaths. This translates in Angelina County to about 36 new cases and 14 deaths this year alone. Remember, these are preventable deaths.

How are we going to achieve this screening goal locally?

The Angelina County & Cities Health District, CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial, the Temple Cancer Center and our local gastroenterologists have teamed up with the American Cancer Society and CPRIT – the state-funded Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas – to educate our area population and screen eligible patients for colorectal cancer through a cooperative grant headed by UT Tyler. Most insurances cover routine screening, but this group stands ready to make sure that any eligible patient, whether insured or not, has access to life-saving screening and, if a cancer is found, treatment as well.

There are many ways to be screened, but I want to focus on the two most available. These two  - colonoscopy and FIT testing – are also funded under the CPRIT grant and by almost all insurances. Having a colonoscopy is the best test, in my opinion, because if any polyps are found they can be removed right then and there. If the colonoscopy is negative, nothing else needs to be done for 10 years! My wife and I had ours done the year we turned 50, and it really is not a big deal. Yes, you have to do a bowel prep to clean out your colon, but that is a small price to pay for peace of mind for 10 years.

The second test covered under the CPRIT grant – and the one that will be done most often at the Health District – is the FIT (fecal immunochemical) test. It is a test for hidden blood in the stool, which can be an early sign of colon cancer. This test is done at home by using a small brush to collect some stool and place it on a test card. The test kit is then mailed back to the clinic for processing. The FIT test must be done every year, as opposed to the colonoscopy every 10 years, but it is cheaper and doesn’t require a bowel prep. If the FIT test is positive, a colonoscopy is then necessary.

If you are between the ages of 50 and 75 and have not had a colonoscopy in the last 10 years or had an annual FIT test, ask your doctor to schedule you for one. If you do not have insurance, call Angelina County Connects at (936) 633-1442 and ask the eligibility specialists if you qualify to be screened under the CPRIT grant. Let’s work together to prevent cancer and get to 80% by 2018!