The funds generated by this check-off would go to help screen for and research prostate cancer, which is one of the deadliest dieseases for African-American males.

This bill was signed into law by the governor on 11/6/07.

Below is Sen. Thomas' statement on this bill:

Thomas' testimony on Prostate Funding in Senate Finance Committee

Senate Democratic Floor Leader Buzz Thomas’ speech Presented to the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 3:00 PM

Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. We have been working on these bills for over five years and it is exciting to see them moving.

I would like to specifically speak about Senate Bill 16, which would allow a tax check off to fund prostate cancer research.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, 1 in 6 men in America will get prostate cancer, and 41.8% of cancer cases are prostate cancer.

For African American men prostate cancer is a much more serious problem. While the white mortality rates for prostate cancer is 28.8%, for African Americans the mortality rate is 70.4%.

For 2007, it is expected that there will be 218,890 cases of prostate cancer and over 27,000 American males will die from this disease.

Americans are more likely to get prostate cancer than any other nationality.

This is the bad news.

The good news is that the incidents death from prostate cancer have been dropping. From over 30,000 deaths in 1993 to 27,000 this year, less and less people are dying from prostate cancer.

The treatment for prostate cancer has become more aggressive, more diverse, and more people today are aware of this awful disease.

In the past no one talked about prostate cancer. Now, not only are we here talking about increasing funding to prostate cancer, most males in America would not think of having a physical without getting a test for prostate cancer.

There are many famous Americans who had prostate cancer and survived—Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Senator John Kerry, and New York Yankees manager Joe Torre are just a few. I would not be surprised if someone in this room is a prostate cancer survivor or has a family member who is a survivor.

I am asking for your support on this bill. It will not cost the state a dime and in an age of increasing health care costs, this fund will actually help reduce the cost of healthcare by promoting education and early detection. Thank you and I am willing to answer any questions.

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