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Cancer-center directors urge more tobacco-settlement and tax funding to cut Kentucky's high cancer death rate
Summary
Directors of the University of Louisville Brown Cancer Center and UK Markey told the Tobacco Oversight Committee Kentucky leads the nation in cancer deaths and urged more health-settlement and state revenue — including a proposed nickel-per-cigarette tax increment — to expand screening, trials and rural access.
Directors from Kentucky’s two academic cancer centers told the Tobacco Oversight Committee on Dec. 22 that the state’s cancer burden remains unusually high and that expanded use of tobacco-settlement funds and targeted state revenue could accelerate progress.
“Kentucky is the number 1 state for cancer-related deaths,” said Dr. Jason Chesney, director of the University of Louisville James Graham Brown Cancer Center, citing a rate of about 182 deaths per 100,000 and an estimated combined economic and health cost of roughly $6 billion. “We can fix this, but we need your help.”
Chesney detailed clinical advances at U of L, including expanded infusion volumes, a mobile mammography unit that finds new breast cancers, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) cell therapies that have moved from trials to FDA approval. He said NIH and other awards — including nearly $23 million in NIH funding for an immunology center cited during the presentation — have supported trial capacity and translational research.
Chesney said a disproportionate share of Tobacco Master Settlement proceeds has gone elsewhere and urged directing more of those funds to prevention, screening and clinical research. “We spend less than 10% of it on that purpose,” he said, and proposed a modest cigarette-tax increase — “a nickel from the cigarette tax” — as a way to generate an estimated $10 million for the two academic centers.
Dr. Evers, director of the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center, outlined prevention and statewide outreach that followed Markey’s NCI comprehensive designation. He said Markey now reaches all 120 counties through affiliates, has increased lung-cancer screening (Kentucky ranked second nationally in screening rate at the time of the presentation), and runs the APPLE (Appalachian Tobacco Regulatory Science Team) project, a research and regulatory-science grant reported at about $19 million over five years.
Both presenters emphasized access gaps in rural and Appalachian regions and the need for workforce development. Markey highlighted a pipeline that has sent Appalachian students into health careers (157 students in a mentoring program, many matriculating into college and medical training) and a planned new ambulatory building expected to open in phases after 2027 to consolidate outpatient oncology services.
Committee members asked about the practical effects of additional state funding and federal budget uncertainty. Representative McPherson asked whether unproven therapies such as ivermectin have any clinical support; Chesney replied that only randomized clinical trials can establish benefit and warned against substituting untested agents for evidence-based care. Senator Webb and others pressed on revenue options, including taxing vaping products or delta-8/9 products, and on how increased funds would be spent in rural counties.
No formal vote on new funding or tax changes was taken; presenters were asked to provide further details on budgets and program priorities. The committee adjourned after the presentations and questions.
The presentations cited Tobacco Master Settlement funds, NIH/COBRA grant funding and the APPLE project as principal funding sources supporting screening, trials and workforce programs.
