Fifty physicians and scientists who review grant proposals at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas have signed a strongly-worded statement in protest of recent Texas policies and laws that “severely undermine” public health.
The individuals who signed the letter are experts—appointed by CPRIT’s leadership to the institute’s scientific panels—who are responsible for reviewing award applications at the second largest publicly-funded granting organization for cancer after NIH.
“The state’s overt attack on women’s reproductive rights and its misguided and harmful COVID policies demonstrate an unwillingness by Texas lawmakers to prioritize the long-term health of citizens over short-term political gain,” CPRIT’s reviewers said in the statement shared with The Cancer Letter.
“We strongly believe in the CPRIT mission and are committed to supporting it, but we must speak out against policies that are anathema to its spirit. Failure to do so would implicitly signal that we accept those policies; we do not.”
The statement comes five months after two members—Tom Curran and Myles Brown—of the highest-level review board at CPRIT resigned in September 2021 in response to SB 8, a Texas law that bans all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy (The Cancer Letter, Sept. 3, 2021).
CPRIT reviewers are proud to support the institute, but silence isn’t an option, said John Petrini, member of a CPRIT review panel. Petrini is director of the Functional Genomics Initiative at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, member and chair of the Molecular Biology Program, and the Paul A. Marks Chair of Molecular Cell Biology.
“We believe strongly that CPRIT is a shining example of support for research that all states should emulate. We are proud to support it,” Petrini said to The Cancer Letter. “But, in some sense, we wondered if we could work for the state of Texas in light of the public health stance of the governor and the legislature. CPRIT embodies the best of public health policy.
We felt we had to say something to our peers in the scientific community and elsewhere that we do not accept or condone these actions by the governor that undermine public health so severely.
John Petrini
“In that context, we felt we had to say something to our peers in the scientific community and elsewhere that we do not accept or condone these actions by the governor that undermine public health so severely,” Petrini said. “I want to stress that these are our personal opinions, not those of our affiliated institutions nor of CPRIT itself.”
CPRIT continues to carry out its intended mission, said CPRIT CEO Wayne Roberts.
“Some peer reviewers have expressed disagreement with legislation unrelated to CPRIT that was passed last year,” Roberts said to The Cancer Letter. “However, we remain focused on our mission to help Texans and their families affected by cancer.”
The statement by CPRIT reviewers follows:
We, the undersigned* are members of the scientific panels evaluating grants for Cancer Prevention and Research in Texas (CPRIT), Texas’s groundbreaking cancer-research initiative.
CPRIT not only benefits Texans but is a praiseworthy model for the nation, funding the best efforts to understand the causes of and potential treatments for cancer.
But even as we laud the state’s visionary cancer research support, we question the recent actions of Governor Abbott and the Texas legislature, which severely undermine their stewardship of public health.
Specifically, the state’s overt attack on women’s reproductive rights and its misguided and harmful COVID policies demonstrate an unwillingness by Texas lawmakers to prioritize the long-term health of citizens over short-term political gain.
We strongly believe in the CPRIT mission and are committed to supporting it, but we must speak out against policies that are anathema to its spirit. Failure to do so would implicitly signal that we accept those policies; we do not.
We hope that this letter will help rouse members of the scientific community nationwide and all Texans who value the state’s commitment to public health, above all the Texas legislature—to strip politics from health and science policies and to uphold the primacy of human well-being.
*These opinions reflect our personal views on this matter and do not reflect the position of our affiliated institutions nor those of CPRIT.
- John HJ Petrini, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center - Neil P. Shah, MD, PhD
University of California, San Francisco - Carolyn D. Runowicz, MD
Florida International University - Kurt Giles, PhD
University of California San Francisco - Walter Stadler, MD, FACP
University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences - Steven P. Balk, MD, PhD
Harvard Medical School - Howard S. Hochster, MD
Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health System - Martin Pomper, MD, PhD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine - Matthew Weitzman, PhD
University of Pennsylvania, and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia - Margaret A. Tempero, MD
University of California San Francisco - Kirk Wagensteen, MD, PhD
University of Pennsylvania - Katherine McGlynn, PhD, MPH
National Institutes of Health - Lorelei Ann Mucci, ScD, MPH
Harvard Medical School - Karen Emmons, PhD
Harvard Medical School - Robert Schnoll, PhD
University of Pennsylvania - Electra Paskett, PhD
The Ohio State University College of Public Health - Brooke Fridley, PhD
Moffitt Cancer Center - Antonio Ribas, MD, UCLA
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center - Christopher Li, MD, PhD
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center - William Barlow, PhD
University of Washington School of Public Health - Brian Booher, MA
Ann’s Place Community Based Cancer Support (Patient Advocate) - Olivera (Olja) J. Finn, PhD
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine - Carol Prives, PhD
Columbia University - Christopher Haiman, ScD
University of Southern California - Andrew Olshan, PhD
University of North Carolina - Thomas Brandon, PhD
Moffitt Cancer Center - Michal-Judith Gillman
Central Coast Survive Oars (Patient Advocate) - Alexander Parker, PhD
University of Florida College of Medicine - Jeff Wrana, PhD, FRSC
Sinai Health Systems and University of Toronto - Ann Kelsey Thacher
Patient Advocate - Ellen Pure, PhD
University of Pennsylvania - Walter J. Chazin, PhD
Vanderbilt University - Nahum Sonenberg, PhD, FRS
McGill University - Sandra Ryeom, PhD
Columbia University Irving Medical Center - Shelley Berger, PhD
University of Pennsylvania - Jan Karlseder, PhD
The Salk Institute - Alan Tomkinson, PhD
University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center - Winfried Edelmann, PhD
Albert Einstein College of Medicine - James Manfredi, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai - Paul Bunn, MD
University of Colorado Anschutz - Victor H. Engelhard, PhD
University of Virginia School of Medicine - Richard O’Reilly, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center - Daphne Haas-Kogan, MD
Harvard Medical School - Ross Berbeco, PhD
Harvard Medical School - Carolyn Anderson, PhD
University of Missouri - David Mankoff, MD, PhD
University of Pennsylvania - G. Allen Johnson, PhD
Duke University School of Medicine - John Gore, PhD
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine - Hossein Jadvar, MD, PhD
University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine - Anna Wu, PhD
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