The Will
to Fight
By Aaron Bracamontes
Race to save cancer warriors is a personal mission for researchers
at Texas Tech Health El Paso
Imagine what you’d do for one more day with a loved one lost to cancer. What if you could extend that to weeks, months or even years?
The thought motivates researchers at Texas Tech Health El Paso’s Center of Emphasis in Cancer, including Rajkumar Lakshmanaswamy, Ph.D., dean of the Francis Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He has lost multiple family members to cancer, including his father.
“It’s taken precious life, and that’s what makes cancer an enemy,” said Dr. Lakshmanaswamy. “You hate it with passion because it’s taken your kin. You want to stop it, to keep it from harming others.”
Dr. Lakshmanaswamy is the principal investigator for the new Impacting Cancer Outcomes in Hispanics project, known as ICOHN. Funded by a $6 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the project examines cancer and cancer-related health disparities in Hispanic populations along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Borderplex residents with cancer have not been studied well over the years,” Dr. Lakshmanaswamy said. “In general, Hispanics haven’t been enrolled in research and clinical trials. We hope to reverse that trend so the results can lead to greater breakthroughs both in our Borderplex and beyond.”
Cancer is the leading cause of death among U.S. Hispanics, accounting for 20.3% of all deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And one in three Hispanic adults will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.
About 30 faculty, researchers and staff are participating in ICOHN, and more will join the team as the project expands. ICOHN also will include the creation of a biorepository, or tissue bank, with cancer samples from the El Paso population.
“This tissue bank will be a gold mine for research. We’ll be able to recruit faculty interested in studying cancers affecting U.S.-Mexico border populations,” Dr. Lakshmanaswamy said. “Through the tissue bank, we’ll better understand the cancers affecting our local population, which is mostly Hispanic. It also opens us up to study more cancers and treatments in the future.”
“Cancer is a complicated disease to
cure because it’s one of your own cells that has turned against you.
If you attack one area, others will
pop up. And, if you want to attack a major cancer cell mass, it always hurts normal cells.”
“What we do in the next five years will bring us further than we’ve ever been...”
— Anna M. Eiring, Ph.D.
With the ICOHN project underway, and the Steve and Nancy Fox Cancer Center coming to campus in the near future, Texas Tech Health El Paso is on a path to change the lives of our Borderplex residents.
“This is all part of an important plan to establish ourselves as a leader in combating cancer,” said Anna M. Eiring, Ph.D., an ICOHN faculty researcher. “What we do in the next five years will bring us further than we’ve ever been. And what comes after will impact cancer care for decades to come.”
Other Texas Tech Health El Paso faculty researchers involved in ICOHN include Shrikanth Gadad, Ph.D., M.Sc., and Ramadevi Subramani Reddy, Ph.D.
For the many in the ICOHN program, research is both a job and a profession. It’s also a mission and, perhaps, the most important thing they’ll do in life.
Sometimes they hit dead ends, sometimes they get frustrated, but each new day brings fresh motivation.
“In research, when you find something that works, and you realize it can help reduce the risk of cancer, it gives you great satisfaction,” Dr. Lakshmanaswamy said. “The possibility keeps you going when things get tough, because the truth is, research is not easy. So when things don’t work the way you thought they would, the motivation is that tomorrow they might.”
