I am headed for Boston next Wednesday to do some lobbying for the American Cancer Society. They have three bills they have an interest in, all of which are centered on getting people to stop smoking.

I did the training for that effort yesterday. It was interesting in a number of ways–not least of which was discovering that the budget for smoking cessation programs has been cut by close to 90 percent over the last ten years. I was involved peripherally in planning for one of the state programs in the Greater  Fall River-New Bedford area back in the 1990s and it was very disappointing to discover the degree to which that effort has collapsed since.

At the end of the session I talked briefly with the person running the training about a potential fourth issue. The current legislative agenda includes a substantial increase in both the cigarette tax and the taxes on other tobacco products like cigars and chewing tobacco. Some of that revenue would be used to fund an increase in the budget for anti-smoking efforts, but the majority of the money will end up in the general fund.

Currently, the state of the art treatment for NET is a radiation treatment called PRRT which was pioneered in Europe. The treatment requires a new kind of machine–of which there are only two in the US. One is at Vanderbilt University and the other is at M.D. Anderson in Houston, Texas. The device in Texas cost about $2.5 million to build–which came from the state government in the form of a grant.

Dana-Farber wants to become a national center for NET/CS treatment and research. I think that is a noble and important goal. But it is a goal that requires they have state-of-the-art level equipment and facilities. I think the ability to do PRRT is part of being a national center for treatment and research.

My suggestion was to bring this up with legislators when I visit on Wednesday. Unfortunately, since I will be representing ACS and they have taken no official policy position on PRRT, I can’t do that. Of course I will go back to Beacon Hill later this spring to talk about this particular issue on my own. But in the meantime, I want the ACS New England Policy Board to join the effort.

I have sent some back-up material to the ACS CAN rep I spoke with yesterday and will shortly have an address to mail letters of support to. Please take a few minutes in the next day or two to draft a letter of support for this idea to the  New England policy board. I will have an address to send that to shortly and will post it here and on the Ways to Help page.

Letters to your state representative and state senator, if you live in Massachusetts, would also be a help.

My thought is that more of the money being raised by those tobacco taxes should go to cancer research and treatment. If you agree, please lend a hand.