Texas Insider

12:46 pm CST - March 11, 2010

Houston Organizations Receive $3.5 Million in CPRIT Cancer Prevention Grants

HOUSTON – The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) awarded $3.5 million to five Houston area organizations to fund cancer prevention programs that will reach underserved populations and geographic areas of Texas.

Representative Ellen Cohen who served as the House sponsor of the bill creating the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas was especially pleased that so many institutions in District 134 and the Houston area were awarded grants.

The Houston recipients include:

Baylor College of Medicine (for a statewide web-based childhood cancer survivorship project),
Hope Clinic (for a cancer prevention education and outreach initiative serving Fort Bend and Harris counties),
The Rose (for a breast cancer screening and cervical cancer education initiative serving Brazoria, Burleson, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, Waller, and Wharton counties),
The University of Houston (for a cervical cancer education initiative focused in Harris county), and
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (for a cancer prevention education and navigation project serving Austin, Brazoria, Cameron, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Hidalgo, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Starr, Wharton, Willacy, Walker, and Waller counties).

“Seeing the vision we had initially for the CPRIT come to fruition is so exciting,” said Rep. Cohen whose district includes the Texas Medical Center. “And the impact is incredibly far-reaching. First and foremost, the emphasis on cancer prevention will save lives. Secondly, institutions like Baylor College of Medicine, UT Health Science Center, and The Rose will extend their outreach and their knowledge base.”

The grants are part of a $6.8 million slate approved to fund twelve new cancer prevention programs through local clinics, health districts, community-based organizations, and academic institutions across the state of Texas.

CPRIT’s twelve cancer prevention grants cover a broad spectrum of preventative services and programs such as screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers; health promotion and education programs aimed at increasing screening and vaccination rates, and improving the quality of follow-up care for pediatric cancer survivors. The twelve awards were selected from 56 prevention applications submitted to CPRIT.

Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2007 establishing the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and authorizing the state to issue $3 billion in bonds to fund groundbreaking cancer research and prevention programs and services in Texas.

CPRIT’s goal is to expedite innovation and commercialization in the area of cancer research and to enhance access to evidence-based prevention programs and services throughout the state. CPRIT accepts applications and awards grants for a wide variety of cancer-related research and for the delivery of cancer prevention programs and services by public and private entities located in Texas. More information about CPRIT and the funded awards is available at its website, www.cprit.state.tx.us.

State Representative Ellen Cohen represents District 134, which includes all of Bellaire, West University, River Oaks, Rice University and the Texas Medical Center, along with parts of Meyerland and Montrose. Rep. Cohen is serving her second term in the Texas State Legislature.

3 Comments

CWJensen
2:18 pm CST
March 11, 2010

And I wonder how these areas VOTE? No I don’t.

TWood22
9:03 am CST
March 11, 2010

I like that the focus is on prevention. So much of the focus around cancer is reactive, what to do after being diagnosed and who can best manage the disease for the afflicted. There is much, much more we can do in the area of prevention to reduce risk, more than just routine check ups. My hope is that preventative methods are broadcast far, wide and often. There is no reason why Texas can’t reduce the almost 100 thousand new diagnoses annually and in turn reduce the almost 40 thousand annual deaths due to cancer. I think that if people are better informed about prevention and healthy lifestyles, we would not have the healthcare problems we are going through today. If folks aren’t engaged in proactively pursuing a healthy lifestyle, then they are at greater risk and most probably will be the ones who place a burden on the healthcare system…we all pay for that. To do otherwise would just be selfish.

Byron Wine
10:17 am CST
March 11, 2010

Our government has known since 1946 that cancer can be cured without drugs or radiation.
For documentation see:

“Dear Mr. Wine:

The complete citation for the 1946 hearing you inquired about is as
follows: Cancer research. Hearings before a subcommittee of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Seventy-ninth
Congress, second session, on S. 1875, a bill to authorize and request
the President to undertake to mobilize at some convenient place in the
United States an adequate number of the world’s outstanding experts,
and coordinate and utilize their services in a supreme endeavor to
discover means of curing and preventing cancer. July 1-3, 1946.

This hearing is available on microfilm at federal depository libraries.
You can request it under the following CIS number: (79)S806-8. If you
are in the Washington DC area and can come to the Law Library of
Congress, you can request this hearing (for use in the reading room
only) by the call number KF26.F6.1946b.

Alice R.Buchalter
Sr. Research Analyst
Federal Research Division
Library of Congress”