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| Texas leaders push $3 billion cancer campaign |
| The Houston Chronicle, 1/23/2007 |
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AUSTIN — With a Texas-size ambition to find a cure for cancer, the state's leading medical scientists joined Gov. Rick Perry, world cycling champion Lance Armstrong and state lawmakers Monday to call for a $3 billion, decade-long project they compared to landing a man on the moon.
Funding for the homegrown initiative remains tentative but likely would require voter approval of a constitutional amendment to authorize state borrowing against bonds.
"What we're really talking about is something that could change the world. It could happen right here in Texas," said Cathy Bonner, former state commerce secretary, who hatched the idea while former Gov. Ann Richards was undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer.
The cure-for-cancer quest could be comparable in scope, Bonner said, to President John F. Kennedy's 1960s commitment to land a man on the moon or the fast-tracked Manhattan Project, which created the atom bomb and led to victory over Japan in World War II.
"This is a project that could be that big," said Bonner, noting that 35,000 Texans will die this year of cancer while another 88,000 will be diagnosed with some form of the disease. "It would make Texas the global leader of cancer research."
Bonner was joined by Perry, Armstrong and John Mendelsohn, president of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in pushing for the cancer research funding at Austin's Four Seasons Hotel.
Gathering support
About 50 state leaders attended lunch at the hotel, organized by former Democratic state Comptroller John Sharp. The gathering included key lawmakers and representatives of the governor's office, M.D. Anderson, The University of Texas Health Science Centers, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
"I can't imagine that this wouldn't have full support from all legislators," said Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, who plans to author a constitutional amendment to raise $300 million per year.
The measure would need two-thirds approval from both the House and Senate before Texas voters would have the final say.
"It's not going to be a partisan thing. It's not going to be a regional thing. Every one of us have had our lives touched by cancer," added Nelson, whose co-sponsors will be Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, and Democratic Sen. Kirk Watson, former Austin mayor and survivor of testicular cancer.
The push for a major drive to wipe out cancer comes as the United States is losing its edge after leading cancer research for half a century, backers said, adding that the project could create thousands of Texas jobs along with saving lives.
"I think it's a confluence of a recognition that Texas is going to lose a lot of talent in terms of cancer research over the next few years unless we take steps to make sure that this state is the leader in cancer research," said Perry spokesman Robert Black.
Range of cures
Mendelsohn said 41 percent of all Americans will develop cancer during their lifetimes, but federal cancer research funding is dropping.
Meanwhile, biomedical research is fueling substantial economic growth in San Diego and Boston, while countries like Singapore are "aggressively gearing up to take over what America has been the leader of in the past 50 years," he said.
The effort will seek a range of cures rather than a single cure for cancer, he said, since the disease exists in multiple forms.
Research would span the spectrum of behavioral change, genetic causes, preventive strategies, screening methods and treatment.
'My everyday obsession'
Mendelsohn said strides made in cancer research, which would draw on the skills of engineers and computer science experts, could also prompt breakthroughs in fighting other diseases such as Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.
Perry touted the potential project as one that could create trillions of dollars in economic wealth and make Texas the "epicenter" of cancer research.
"This is a very powerful moment in Texas history," he said.
Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France cycling competition and a testicular cancer survivor, said "you know it's a big deal" when he sports a gray tie rather than his usual athletic jerseys.
Armstrong, who criticized the federal government last week for "excuses and delays" in cancer funding, said it's time to make cancer research a national priority.
"That's sort of my everyday obsession," he said, adding, "this is the most logical state in the nation to make it happen."
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Lance Armstrong and Cathy Bonner at the legislative kick-off to pass the
cancer research initiatives.
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