Cancer Center needs chance to implement business plan

The University of Hawaii Cancer Center needs a lifeline — at least for the short term — and state lawmakers must recognize that cutting financial support now would damage the center’s long-term viability and curtail research vital to local communities.

Denying support at this juncture would cause a ripple effect that could include the Cancer Center losing is National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation.

That, in turn, would cripple the center’s access to millions in federal grants and recruitment of high-caliber scientists into its research program.

UH had asked for $5 million in continued state support this year, but Gov. David Ige reduced the request to $4 million.

While some legislators have grown weary of supplementing the budget of the Cancer Center, which is saddled with an $8 million annual mortgage for its oversized Kakaako facility and is dipping into its reserve cigarette tax fund, it makes little sense to risk valuable federal dollars and potential lifesaving advances. Not when more than 6,000 Hawaii residents are diagnosed with an invasive cancer each year, and more than 2,000 will die from the disease annually.

Star-Advertiser staff writer Kristen Consillio, in a three-part series, highlighted Cancer Center research breakthroughs that serve local populations and beyond:

>> Tracking a group of ethnically diverse Hawaii patients for more than 20 years, monitoring their food, lifestyle choices and whether they develop health problems such as cancer.

The study has led to insights into how genetics and nutrition interact to determine cancer risk. Such long-term studies can have a direct impact on local residents.

>> Finding six genetic variants associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer, as part of an international study that will help identify individuals who should be prioritized for colonoscopy screening to find tumors earlier, increasing chances of survival.

>> Discovery of two chemical compounds that stop the growth of brain cancer cells and breast tumors, which opens the way for potential new drugs to be developed.

Such advances would be fewer and far between if the Cancer Center loses its NCI designation.

The center received its latest five-year award in 2012 and was granted a one-year extension in order for the center to find a new director.

Indeed, the center must choose wisely as it searches for someone to right the ship. Candidates are scheduled to be in town over the next few weeks, and it is critical that the incoming director have both research and business acumen.

Guiding the Cancer Center toward self-sustainability will no doubt be a major priority for the next director, and there will be no time to waste.

The Cancer Center is facing a roughly $7 million operating deficit in 2016, and shortfalls are projected for at least the next few years.

External consultants recommended in January that UH strongly consider changing the center to a semiautonomous business entity, co-owned and run with community-hospital partners. But Jerris Hedges, the center’s interim director, considers that a long-term solution that will need several years to complete.

For now, Hedges is focusing on a plan over the next two to five years that involves the sale of laboratory activities for commercial use, establishing spinoff companies to use the technology developed by researchers to monitor cancer risk, and entrepreneurial ventures.

The Cancer Center is looking to partner with large pharmaceutical companies on clinical trials, and is working with businesses such as Nestle to study the metabolic profile of people who use their food products and to study how those products are tolerated by different population.

While these revenue- generating steps will help dig the center out of its financial hole, it will be increasingly important to have strict guidelines in place that ensure partnerships with private businesses are devoid of conflicts of interest. The center’s endeavors should not have even the appearance of impropriety.

Also in the mix is Senate Bill 2690, which proposes an increase in the cigarette tax. The bill originally asked for a tax increase to 20 cents a cigarette up from 16 cents, but current versions have left blank the amount.

If an increase is granted, half would go to the Cancer Center.

But the center can no longer hang its hat on cigarette taxes. Its flawed business plan — which assumed its share of cigarette taxes would remain steady at $20 million a year — is in large part why the center finds itself in its financial fix.

The Cancer Center needs continued state support, and lawmakers must consider a plan that provides the Cancer Center some short-term relief, while keeping pressure on the center’s administrators to produce a viable business plan. A healthier Hawaii depends on it.