When President Barack Obama called for a national moon shot to end cancer, the MD Anderson community and our patients cheered. For nearly 75 years, cancer has been our priority, and we are heartened to see it elevated to a true national priority.
Annual Report 2015 : Prevention
Leaders prepare and plan today to prevent disease tomorrow
Executive director of MD Anderson’s cancer prevention and control platform Joxel Garcia, M.D.
Photo: Nick de la Torre
Photo: Nick de la Torre
Working on his family’s farm as a boy in Puerto Rico, Joxel Garcia learned the importance of planning ahead to prevent hardships.
“We had to be ready for a drought or a flood, because both made our cows’ milk production decrease,” he says. Either could spell disaster for the family, so Garcia learned to prepare and guard against the worst.
Those lessons learned years ago still apply today in Garcia’s career as a medical leader focused on disease prevention. He joined MD Anderson in August to further the institution’s cancer prevention efforts.
“While efforts to develop new cancer treatments and therapies are important, it’s preferable to prevent the disease in the first place,” says Garcia, a medical doctor and executive director of MD Anderson’s cancer prevention and control platform, which promotes community programs to prevent cancer, particularly among the poor and underserved.
Ernest Hawk, M.D., vice president and head of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, and Mark Moreno, vice president for Governmental Relations, led the platform’s early efforts, which have achieved a number of successes.
MD Anderson’s tobacco-free hiring policy is a direct result of the platform’s EndTobacco program.
Platform experts have advised Texas legislators on various public health measures, including laws to restrict minors’ access to indoor tanning devices and electronic cigarettes.
MD Anderson is lending its expertise to the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) program, school-based lessons that help students and their parents adopt healthy lifestyle choices through nutrition and exercise. With MD Anderson’s participation, the program now includes sun safety lessons to prevent skin cancer. CATCH has been introduced in 10,000 schools, preschools and after-school programs throughout the nation.
Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) uses a Skype-like video conferencing program to connect MD Anderson experts with health care providers in underserved areas, teaching them how to screen for and treat cervical cancer.
Garcia, who formerly served as U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Representative to the World Health Organization and a four-star Admiral for the U.S. Public Health Service, says the platform prioritizes those Moon Shots Program targets that’ll be most influenced by prevention and cancer control, including lung, melanoma and human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers.
“We’ll increase genetic counseling and testing for patients with increased cancer risks, such as those with BRCA1 and 2 mutations; we’ll increase screenings and identify biomarkers for the early detection of lung cancer; and we’ll work with health departments and legislators around the nation to advocate for the HPV vaccine and for restricting tanning bed and electronic cigarette use by minors,” Garcia says.
He intends to use big data to develop more personalized risk assessments and targeted interventions.
The platform is not meant to remain local, but to be shared with leadership at local, state, federal and international entities, he explains.
“Houston is our base, our home, and we want it to be as healthy as possible, but we have a global responsibility as well.”
More Stories From Annual Report
In 2015, surgical history was made
Collaboration and a unique opportunity led to the world’s first skull and scalp transplant
Curing leukemia without debilitating side effects
Jamie Whittington has an aggressive form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but you’d never know it.
An immunotherapy drug to bolster a T cell surge
MD Anderson Melanoma Moon Shot researchers are combining two immunotherapies for the first time to double-team melanoma that has spread to other organs and resisted all forms of treatment.
Bold advances require the latest technology
To meet a growing demand for clinical, diagnostic and support services, ground was broken in 2013 for The Pavilion, an eight-story, 184,800-square-foot facility connected to the Main Building.
In the face of cancer
It’s a phrase that describes our patients, who, faced with a disease that is unpredictable and unforgiving, remain strong and determined.
It describes our doctors, researchers, educators and staff, who are relentless in their drive to stop a plague that robs us all of friends, family and loved ones.
He took on the mystery of metastasis. Now he’s taking on brain cancer.
Few scientists have devoted as much of their career to understanding how cancer spreads as Isaiah Fidler, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Graduating to big things before returning to MD Anderson
When Joya Chandra, Ph.D., joined the faculty of MD Anderson’s pediatrics department in 2002, she felt an immediate kinship with the researchers, clinicians and, especially, with the students.
Where rivers of research and clinical data converge into one pool
A simple yet unprecedented goal drives the big data efforts of MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program: to have every patient contribute to and benefit from the cancer
center’s research.
Bottom line: Converting discoveries into new treatments at a faster rate
When a clinical trial for a new breast cancer drug launched recently, researchers estimated it would take at least two years to enroll the 20 patients needed to make the trial a success. However, within four months, half the patients had already enrolled — and the drug worked for all 10.
Outsmarting cancer with genetic testing
Teresa Hall’s visit to a gastroenterologist three years ago wasn’t the first time she’d sought help for troubling symptoms.
Are you at high risk for pancreatic cancer?
A new clinic to identify and monitor those at high risk for developing pancreatic cancer continues to expand after opening last year.
We’re creating partnerships to detect a deadly cancer earlier
Building on MD Anderson research, a new company named Codiak Biosciences has formed to create therapeutic and diagnostic products using exosomes — small parts of cells that break away and float around the body.
Breast cancer screening guidelines aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution
It’s clear that breast cancer screenings save lives. But exactly when women at average risk of developing breast cancer should begin screening is much less clear.
