Remarks by Tommy G. Thompson
Secretary of Health and Human Services
to the Paul Carbone Cancer Center Grant News Conference

Remarks as prepared, not a direct transcript.

Good morning. Thank you Dean Farrell for that warm introduction. It is great to return to Wisconsin and to my favorite university. I always make it a point to get back here as often as possible - especially in the fall so I can help fill Camp Randall Stadium every weekend.

I'd like to thank Chancellor John Wiley; Dean Farrell; George Wilding, acting director of the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center; Mark Lefebvre from the UW Foundation; and Donna Sollenberger, CEO of UW Hospitals and Clinics for being here today and demonstrating their support to strengthening cancer research at UW-Madison. I also see my friends Mark Bugher and Greg Gracz, who do so much for our wonderful state.

I'd also like to offer a special thank you to Paul Carbone for joining us today, and you'll hear a few words from him in a minute. Paul's father - Doctor Paul Carbone - was a true pioneer who served as director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and did so much to make this university great. Paul, all Wisconsinites - and all Americans - are in the debt of your wonderful family.

One of my greatest privileges as Secretary of Health and Human Services is awarding grants to groups that do so much to improve the health of Americans. And it is even more of a privilege when I can return to the great state of Wisconsin to do it.

Doctor Carbone had a vision of a comprehensive cancer center at the University of Wisconsin and was working toward that vision before he passed away. Today, I am extremely pleased to provide a pivotal step in making his dream a reality. I am proud to announce the awarding of a $7 million National Cancer Institute and National Center for Cancer Resources grant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to help contribute toward constructing the Paul Carbone Cancer Center. This center is named after a man who took great care of his patients, and will be a cancer research facility devoted to researching the causes, treatment and prevention methods of prostate and other forms of life threatening cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in American men and the second leading cause of cancer deaths. This grant will allow the University an opportunity to expand its current prostate cancer research and devote more time and energy to working toward a proper treatment.

The University of Wisconsin has already proven itself as a first-rate University that conducts remarkable, world-renowned scientific research. This University puts research to work for people and accelerates the process of gaining new knowledge and learning new methods of prevention. I expect the developments and progress researchers will be able to make through this award will continue this tradition of excellence.

Cancer is a disease that touches all of our lives - either personally or through friends or loved ones. I wish I could say that cancer is a stranger to my family, but regrettably, we know it too well. Thanks to the care provided by Dr. Carbone, my wife Sue Ann is a breast cancer survivor. While I'm grateful that Sue Ann won her personal battle against breast cancer, I'll never forget being told that she had the disease. It is a message none of us ever wants to hear.

But Sue Ann - and so many others - are proof that there is hope, thanks to the work that occurs here at the University of Wisconsin and other top-flight facilities around the country.

Paul, your father understood the power of modern medicine and the hope that it brings - and he understood that research and these grants have a lasting, tangible effect on people's lives.

In an article he wrote in 1999, Dr. Carbone said, "Every day, as I see patients in my clinic, I see the miracle of hope unfold for those who, only a short time ago, would have had none. Research is not about laboratories and test tubes; for me it has a human face."

We at the Department of Health and Human Services are proud to support researchers here at the University of Wisconsin. We are making an unprecedented commitment to cancer research through the National Institutes of Health, where we are requesting $5.6 billion for cancer research for the coming fiscal year.

We are making this commitment because we must build on our momentum in our fight against cancer, as new scientific discoveries are made and recent reports show that cancer incidence rates declined in men and cancer death rates declined in men and women during the 1990s. But our fight will not be over until every family's battle with cancer is won.

Back when I was Governor, I advanced the HealthStar Iniative that helped create all the beautiful buildings surrounding the UW Hospital, today. Adding this comprehensive cancer center is a capstone element in making the University of Wisconsin one of the finest health sciences campuses in the United States. I look forward to continuing and building on our relationship with the University of Wisconsin, and I can think of no better way to honor Dr. Carbone's legacy than to name the Comprehensive Cancer Center after him.

Thank you all for coming, and now let's hear from our other speakers and hand out some money.

Last Revised: September 29, 2003

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