Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Georgia, and the American Cancer Society estimates that there will be more than 66,200 new cases diagnosed and 19,000 deaths in our state due to cancer this year. In 2001, Georgia was among 46 states that began receiving millions of dollars per year from the tobacco industry after settling a class-action lawsuit. Unlike some other states, Georgia chose to take the settlement — nearly $150 million per year — and invest it in healthcare, with a portion of it going to cancer prevention, screening, research and treatment.
Our elected state leaders made it a priority to ensure that no Georgian would have to leave the state to receive quality cancer care, so they invested in programs that would improve the quality of care and advance cancer research in our universities and medical schools. They launched the Distinguished Cancer Scholars program, which was designed to recruit and retain cancer researchers and physicians to drive innovation.
More than 150 scholars received state funds to support their research and clinical trial programs. Even though the program ended after the economic downturn of 2008, more than 80 of those researchers and physicians still pursue their research and practice medicine in Georgia.
A recent study by Georgia CORE (Center for Oncology Research and Education) found a minimum of a 5:1 return on that investment due to the fact that researchers and physicians leveraged the tobacco dollars to go after and win federal and corporate grants, accelerating their research. Still, cancer continues to be the second leading killer of Georgians, and yet, federal funds for cancer research are in danger.
According to the American College of Surgeon’s Commission on Cancer (COC), Georgia is home to 47 accredited cancer centers, including Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute, a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and two NCI Community Oncology Research Program institutions — Northside Hospital Cancer Institute and the Georgia Cancer Center at Wellstar Augusta. These cancer centers and many others are located throughout the state and are vital lifelines to patients who desperately want to stay near home when they are experiencing one of the most difficult battles of their lives.
Through NCI grants, clinical trials are offered by many of those COC-accredited cancer centers where patients can receive cutting-edge treatments that could save their lives and the lives of those who are diagnosed with cancer after them.
Georgia hospitals, universities and nonprofits such as Georgia CORE also receive federal funds to provide prevention education, increase cancer screenings to the uninsured and underinsured, improve cancer care delivery systems and offer cancer patient navigation to help rural residents through the challenges that come with treatment in areas with limited resources and healthcare options.
I moved to Georgia in 1995, eight years before the first of my three cancer diagnoses. Through thyroid cancer, breast cancer and chronic myeloid leukemia, I have had the great fortune to live in a city where we have five exceptional health systems with excellent cancer providers and a dedication to advancing innovations in cancer treatment through research. I would not be alive today if it were not for clinical trials that validated research and made possible medications and procedures that were offered to me. And it is never lost on me that I also survived because of where I live and the fact that I have excellent employer-provided health insurance.
Many are not so fortunate.
These federal programs and the funding they provide are used to work toward the goal of all Georgians having access to needed services, innovative treatments and a better quality of life during and after their cancer journey.
Recent cost-cutting efforts at the federal level will delay the discovery of life-saving medications and procedures and will reduce the number of people being screened for the deadliest cancers. It will result in more late-stage cancer diagnoses and even more deaths.
Georgia has been a leader in investing in cancer prevention, screening, research and treatment by recruiting and retaining intellectual capital and building the infrastructure that will save lives. But we must have federal funds to keep this vital work moving forward so we can collectively reduce cancer’s hold on our state.
We need more cancer prevention and research funding to save lives — not less.
