The Texas Cancer Plan and the Texas Cancer Council
The Texas Cancer Plan is the comprehensive, statewide strategy for meeting the growing challenge of cancer prevention and control. This strategy involves the public, private, and volunteer sectors in Texas and represents broad consensus about ways to address the priority issues of cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment. In 1985, the Texas Legislature created the Texas Cancer Council to implement the Texas Cancer Plan and to promote the development and coordination of effective and efficient statewide public and private policies, programs, and services related to cancer.The Texas Cancer Plan addresses four key areas: prevention, early detection and diagnosis, treatment, and community cancer control. The Plan has been used as a model by several other states and represents the most comprehensive approach to cancer by any state in the nation.
The Plan continues to evolve, providing an approach to real problems and fostering and coordinating essential cancer prevention and control efforts statewide. By design, the Plan is comprehensive, containing the detailed, concrete steps necessary to reach each goal; it is strategic, focusing on a specific time frame; and its goals are realistic and achievable. The Plan is the product of dedicated Texans with expertise in many areas who volunteered their time and creative energy. Periodically, the Plan is revised by health and education professionals, cancer survivors, and community involved in the fight against cancer.
The Plan has three key features. First, it encourages and helps build networks between and among the many groups in Texas that have already taken up the battle against cancer. Second, it encourages partnerships among public, private, and voluntary sectors, resulting in cooperative planning and conserving state revenue dollars by multiplying their impact through private involvement. Third, implementation of the Plan is fostered by the Texas Cancer Council, which spearheads the development of programs to address unmet needs and facilitates broad support for and involvement in Plan-related activities.
Building on the success of the Texas Cancer Plan, the Council in 1994 published the Breast and Cervical Cancer Plan: A Guide To Action and its companion, Breast and Cervical Cancer in Texas: A Guide to Resources and Data. These publications are the first of their kind in the nation and lay the foundation for the delivery of up-to-date breast and cervical cancer prevention education, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation services for all Texas women.
