The Hollings Cancer Center was pleased to welcome last Friday SC Rep. Wendell Gilliard (D) and Rep. Chip Limehouse (R). Both men represent parts of Charleston County, with Hollings sitting in Rep. Gilliard’s district. Rep. Gilliard, who was elected to his seat in 2008 after serving 11 years on Charleston City Council, is coming off his first term and we congratulate him. Rep. Limehouse has served in the legislature since 1995.

Our discussion about Hollings’ recent NCI designation led to questions about where we are headed. Our goal is to apply for the NCI’s Comprehensive Cancer Center status in 2014. To do that, we’ll be strengthening our Cancer Prevention & Control program and expanding the breadth of our chemoprevention research. 

This led to questions from Rep. Limehouse about what people should be eating to prevent cancer. Rep. Limehouse was on to something with this topic as disease prevention via diet and lifestyle behaviors is an exciting frontier in many areas of medicine. Hollings has a chemoprevention research program, and we look forward to sharing what our researchers discover about what causes and inhibits cancer.

It’s a priority of mine to stay in touch with our elected leaders in South Carolina and Washington, DC. As part of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Hollings serves the entire state, by way of clinical care and clinical trials, as well as treating patients referred to us from other places.  

Like MUSC, Hollings has been hit hard by the severe budget cuts higher ed. institutions have endured in the last year. MUSC alone suffered a 25% cut to its budget from the state. With state and federal funding scarcer than ever, we must keep lawmakers updated on the work we’re doing here. We want them to know that even in tough economic times, we won’t stop searching for a cure, and we won’t offer patients any less than the very best medical care.