Main > Press Room > State of Cancer in Texas 2008

February 6, 2008

STATE OF CANCER IN TEXAS 2008

The purpose of this address is to focus your attention on the state of cancer in Texas and to issue a call to arms to all citizens of Texas to mobilize and unite in the fight against this common enemy. Working together we can eliminate cancer as cause of illness and death in our community and thus ensure a healthier, better and more prosperous future in which we can pursue our own dreams and happiness and our children can as well. Our vision is that one day in the near future no man, woman or child will have to be afraid of dying from cancer.

Cancer, a group of over 100 different diseases, represents one of the greatest public health problems in the State of Texas. Most people have experienced cancer in the family, the worksite, among friends or acquaintances. According to the American Cancer Society, cancer is the most common cause of premature death before the age of 80, and one out of every two men, and one out of every three women will develop cancer during their lifetime. 

In 2007, an estimated 95,310 men and women in Texas were diagnosed with cancer (skin cancers not included except for melanoma) and 37,030 died from it. The continued rapid population growth and increase in the number of people over age 40 will only worsen this situation. Over the next 10 years an estimated one million men and women in Texas will be diagnosed with cancer and 400,000 will die if something is not done. Additionally, financial losses from cancer in our state currently amount to 30 billion dollars annually.

However, 2/3rds of invasive cancers can be prevented and most deaths could be avoided if we immediately adopt a healthy life style and apply the best currently available preventive, screening and treatment technologies to the population at risk. The barrier to reducing the number of deaths from cancer is due to lack of organizational, financial and societal commitment.

Unfortunately, nobody in the USA is in a position to help us, because others are having problems of their own. So, it remains up to us to find the solution to reduce human suffering and the financial burden of cancer in our state.

In 1985, the Speaker of the House and Legislature passed resolution to develop the Texas Cancer Plan to work on lessening the cancer burden on the State, and to create the Texas Cancer Council to administer it. Funding for the Texas Cancer Plan and Texas Cancer Council comes from the tax dollars in the state budget. Texas was the first state in the Union to establish the state cancer plan and to fund it. The Texas Cancer Council is charged with creating, implementing and updating the Texas Cancer Plan. The Council through its competitive grant awards funded numerous community cancer control projects over the past two decades. The Council placed a special emphasis on helping the socio-economically disadvantaged population living in our state. Many of these pilot projects were phenomenally successful, and were reported nationally and internationally. Unfortunately, the Texas Cancer Council has been chronically under funded. In their first year of operation the Council received 3.5 million dollars for cancer control activities. In the ensuing twenty years, the population of Texas has increased by more then 50% while funding amounts have declined. While the Council staff stretched all available dollars to their maximum, their operational effect was greatly augmented and multiplied due to significant financial, manpower and facility resources contributed by grantees and their organizations. Many communities in Texas felt the beneficial impact from these funded cancer control projects. However, substantially greater funding resources must be committed to cut the cancer death rate in half by the year 2015. Investing in the well–being of our citizens, allows Texas to remain productive and economically competitive in the USA and in the global market.

In 1998, the State Health Department, with funding from the Center for Disease Control, helped gather cancer control stake-holders from around the state to form the Texas Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition. The Coalition has focused on cooperative public and private partnership efforts for the implementation of cancer prevention, early detection and treatment, professional training, cancer data collection and more recently cancer survivorship according to the blue-print in the Texas Cancer Plan. (www.texascancercoalition.org)

In 2005, a large representative group of experts from around Texas produced a new Texas Cancer Plan, a blueprint for cancer prevention and control in our state for the next eight to ten years. Within a year another taskforce developed and released a toolkit to help communities throughout Texas to organize and implement cancer control in their communities. Both, the Texas Cancer Plan and the Texas Cancer Control Toolkit were widely promoted and distributed and can be obtained from the Texas Cancer Council or accessed from their web site. (www.tcc.state.tx.us)

The Texas Cancer Registry at the Department of State Health Services earned a gold-standard award for cancer data collection and registrar operation. Annually they have received and processed approximately 140,000 reports of cancer data from 450 health facilities and 6 regional registries in the state. This data allows institutions, researchers, officials and the public to conduct research, to plan and implement effective, evidence supported cancer control interventions. Upon request the Cancer Registry provides interested parties with cancer and demographic data on the state, Health Services Regions, the Council of Government and county levels. A lot of this data can be accessed on their web site. (www.dshs.state.tx.us/tcr)

The Texas Cancer Information Web Portal was recently launched from the remodeled Texas Cancer Data Center to provide Texans with an extensive data and information about cancer and services in Texas. (www.texascancer.info)

In 2007, the Governor and the Texas Legislature introduced an initiative to invest 300 million dollars each year for the next ten years for cancer research. This money will fund cancer research in numerous institutions in Texas. On November 6, voters approved an amendment to authorize the issuance of bonds to fund cancer research to fight cancer in Texas. This is an investment in our future. At the present time, the Texas Cancer Research and Prevention Institute is being created to administer funds and coordinate research activities throughout Texas. Bonds are to be issued and funds collected. The Legislature needs to write the Institute budget into the state budget and needs to authorize disbursement of these funds. These activities will take a good portion of 2008 and may extend into 2009. We anticipate new research activities to commence in 2009. It will probably take several years before we start seeing the practical fruits from these new research initiatives. Such an unprecedented commitment of people and organizations throughout the entire state to fight cancer will most likely lead to additional outside funding from the Federal Government and other sources. However, once the Institute is established the
time tested Texas Cancer Council will be dissolved, and responsibilities for implementation of the Texas Cancer Plan activities and prevention will be shifted to the newly established Institute.

The Texas Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition (TCCCC) and its partners will work this year to focus public attention on cancer and cancer control issues. Coalition members will serve as the liaison between the Coalition and their respective community regions. The Texas Cancer Registry will support the TCCCC activities by providing supporting cancer registry data.

The Texas Cancer Registry is planning to release the Annual Cancer Report in February 2008. This spring the High Plains Division of the American Cancer Society will sponsor publication of the Texas Cancer Facts and Figures 2008 document, a deluxe version of the Annual Cancer Registry Report, for widespread distribution to the public.

This spring the Texas Cancer Registry will release The Colorectal Cancer in Texas Report. This will be a major tool in planning for colorectal cancer control activities throughout the state. Previously the Texas Cancer Registry had released Prostate Cancer in Texas (2006), Tobacco and Cancer in Texas (2006) and Cervical Cancer in Texas (2006) Reports. They are available on their web site or upon request. (www.dshs.state.tx.us/tcr/data.shtm#datainfo)

Also this spring the Texas Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition will release Costing Out the Texas Cancer Plan Implementation, a document with a special section on costing out cancer screening, early detection and treatment implementation in the uninsured economically disadvantaged population. This will be a working document to assist public officials and cancer control planners with allocation of needed resources.

We are issuing a call to arms to all citizens of Texas to mobilize and unite in the fight against the common enemy terrorizing our community for so long. This amounts to a declaration of war on cancer in our state. However, this fight has to be taken to, organized and staged in every community, every county and every section of Texas. Everyone may become part of the problem; therefore everyone needs to be part of the solution. All citizens need to take a proactive approach and get involved. Working together we can eliminate cancer as a cause of illness and death in our community. We want Texas to be the first state in the Union to achieve this goal. Healthy Texans will allow that Texas can and will be competitive on the national and international markets. A productive and successfully competitive Texas will bring greater prosperity to all of us. We want Texas to be a better, healthier and more prosperous place to live in. We want Texas to be the best place in the nation to pursue our own dreams and happiness. Our vision is that one day in the near future no man, woman or child will have to be afraid of dying from cancer.

I wish you a happy, healthy, prosperous, productive and accomplished year.
Let us begin the work!

Davor Vugrin, MD, FACP
Chairman, Texas Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition

Contact address:
Davor Vugrin, MD, FACP
Center For Cancer Control
3702 21st Street, Suite 104
Lubbock, TX 79410
Tel (806) 793-0988
davor.vugrin@ttuhsc.edu  

Download PDF Version

Download Word Version