Mexico, Texas team up to reduce tobacco use
MD Anderson, the National Institute of Cancer of the United Mexican States and the Commission of National Institutes and High Specialty Hospitals signed an agreement in Mexico City in November 2012 to develop prevention and control programs to reduce tobacco use in the United States and Mexico, with a focus on Mexican and Mexican-American youth.
The Mexico and Texas Tobacco Control Initiative’s intent is to:
- contribute to legislative and policy initiatives and
- collaborate on clinical and community services and educational programs that can be implemented in neighborhoods, educational institutions, workplaces and public establishments.
The agreement is a commitment from the institutions to create a comprehensive evidence-based smoking and tobacco-cessation campaign together, targeting the Mexican population.
Ronald DePinho, M.D., president of MD Anderson, says the collaboration is the first flagship project from the Cancer Prevention and Control Platform of MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program and focused on converting academic knowledge into effective anti-smoking strategies for the population in Mexico and across Texas.
The unprecedented Moon Shots Program is an aggressive and milestone-driven effort initially targeting eight cancers with an end goal of dramatically accelerating the reduction of all cancer deaths. The platforms provide infrastructure, technologies or processes that will support all of the moon shots. Cancer control in the population is a major emphasis for the program.
“This agreement will advance tobacco prevention and cessation efforts drawing on the experience and expertise of both partners, while providing new opportunities to develop more progressive programs, services, policies and initiatives for both countries,” DePinho says. “Although our initial approach is to start with Texas and Mexico, the overall goal is to develop a model that will scale for the United States and other Spanish-speaking countries around the world.”
