The News Journal: Delaware politics: Carney outlines his cancer-research agenda
June 19, 2010

BY BETH MILLER

Democrat John C. Carney Jr., facing few distractions so far in his campaign for Delaware's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, is wasting little time rolling out the proposals he hopes to make from the floor of that chamber next year.

Friday, the former lieutenant governor focused on cancer research -- a strong suit for him, after working for almost eight years with the Delaware Cancer Consortium. The Consortium was instrumental in addressing the state's cancer problem, once considered the worst in the nation.

Delaware no longer is in the top 10 in deaths from cancer, and it is a leader in screening for colorectal cancer. But some cancer rates are increasing, and the disease remains a critical problem.

"For the longest time, everybody just wrung their hands," he said. "You can't go anywhere -- Laurel, Seaford, the Indian River area, Claymont --without people expressing concern that it's something in the air or water that causes these things."

Research is key to finding out, he said.

The topic also gave him opportunity to take a step away from the woman who was governor during those years -- Ruth Ann Minner, a name he is sure to hear often after the September primary sorts out which Republican he will face in the November general election.

The GOP has endorsed Greenville businesswoman and attorney Michele Rollins for the seat held since 1993 by Republican Mike Castle. Still in the race, too, is Glen Urquhart, a Rehoboth Beach developer who finished second at the GOP's convention last month.

Doctors weigh in

Carney made three proposals Friday in a fourth-floor conference room of Christiana Care's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, surrounding himself with three key medical professionals -- Dr. Nicholas Petrelli, the Graham Center's medical director; Dr. Stephen Grubbs, principal investigator for the Center's Community Clinical Oncology Program; and registered nurse Meg Maley, who chairs the Delaware Cancer Consortium's Environment Committee.

Based on recommendations from the Consortium and other experts, Carney says he would:
• Work to find the money to do a statewide "body burden" study -- examining contaminants and toxins in bodily fluids, hair, and tissues of Delaware patients, the kind of study begun only in the vicinity of the Indian River power plant so far.

Such a statewide study would cost about $5 million, Maley said. Already, a proposal has been approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The money to do it has not yet been approved, though, and Carney said he could help to strengthen Delaware's hand there.

"We will never be free of chemicals and toxins," Maley said. "Chemicals -- from a regulatory perspective -- are innocent until proven guilty. But if we learn more, we can work hard to reduce exposure."

• Promote reform of clinical trial procedures, as recommended in a recent Institute of Medicine report. Delaware participates in such trials through the National Cancer Institute's Clinical Trials Cooperative Program, which includes 3,100 institutions, 14,000 investigations and enrolls about 25,000 patients a year.

"We're not going to cure cancer without good clinical trials," Grubbs said. "They are essential in defining where we go in fighting this disease."

Inefficiencies and the fact that about half of all trials are never completed, leaving questions unanswered and wasting resources, are problems that should be addressed, he said.

• Increase research capacity at the new Center for Translational Cancer Research, based at the Graham Center.

Expansion there would benefit partners in the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance, including Christiana Care and University of Delaware students. The research area includes 6,000 square feet of laboratory space, storage facilities for specimens, and easy access to hospital resources and practitioners.

The center also is part of the NCI's Cancer Genome Atlas Project.

"It's amazing what can be accomplished in a short amount of time," Petrelli said. "This would have taken 15 years in New York state."

Carney says the expansion would bring high-level jobs to the state, too.

State making progress

Delaware has made progress in its campaign against cancer. A study of cancer incidence and mortality rates, released in May, showed the state had made progress on both fronts -- with people getting cancer at decreasing rates and dying of it less often, too. But while the rates had fallen -- sometimes dramatically -- some still were higher than the national average.

Many in Delaware have linked the high cancer rates to the state's environmental problems -- especially air, water and soil pollution from refineries, chemical plants, power plants and other industrial sources. The link has been anecdotal, lacking research in cancer-cluster data until 2008, when the state Division of Public Health released a study showing eight "cancer clusters" in the state.

Minner refused to release that data to the public or to researchers, a frustration for Carney, who was running for governor that year.

He criticized Minner for not being more aggressive and worked with state Sen. Patricia Blevins, D-Elsmere, to steer the "Cancer Right To Know" bill through the state Legislature. Carney's opponent in that race, now-Gov. Jack Markell, lumped him in with Minner and said the administration had not done enough to address the problem.