Patrick is right to consider putting cancer and cancer prevention into the legislative spotlight. Texas spends tens of billions annually to fight cancer. And the cost — on individuals, families, care providers, and even insurance companies — is growing. The associated productivity losses and indirect costs add billions to cancer’s price tag. It’s a disease we cannot afford, making prevention not just a moral issue, but a financial one. Prevention has to be the goal.
Fortunately, we can prevent cancer with technologies and medicine readily available today. But more progress is needed. Thanks to innovation and public investment in Texas’ medical and scientific investment, much of that world-changing research is happening in our own state. Vaccines are already a powerful tool to prevent some cancers before they start, and each year brings us one step closer to a vaccine that will prevent cancer more broadly.
In the meantime, Texas need not and cannot wait to expand access to the current slate of cancer-preventing immunizations. These include the human papilloma virus vaccine, which has been proven to prevent cervical cancer in women. Perhaps less known, the vaccine also helps prevent skyrocketing rates of head and neck cancer in men.
And while we’re at it, any discussion of cancer prevention must also address gaps in care and access. Given what we know about other intractable health disparities, it shouldn’t be a surprise to know that cancer affects Black and Latino Texans at a higher rate than their white neighbors. For example, in our state, Black women are two and a half times more likely to die from cervical cancer than their white peers.
Preventing cancer — and preventing the prevalence of this disparity — is within reach. The Texas Legislature acted in 2023 to reduce racial disparities in maternal mortality; and with the Lieutenant Governor’s interim charge to prevent cancer, the Legislature can do it again.
Unfortunately, misinformation has shaken public confidence in disease-preventing immunizations, including the one that prevents cervical cancer and head and neck cancers. If the level of misinformation remains unchecked, the rate of cancer-preventing immunizations will decline and disease incidence will rise.
On behalf of a statewide network of doctors, parents, researchers and scientists, the Lieutenant Governor should be commended for tasking the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee with prioritizing cancer prevention.
The call is clear: Let’s prevent what’s preventable and rebuild trust in disease-preventing immunizations, beginning with those that prevent cancer.
Lakshmanan is the chief strategy officer for The Immunization Partnership, a statewide organization that works to improve the rate of routine immunizations in Texas.
