Targeted Treatment

What is Targeted Therapy?

Targeted therapy is a type of cancer treatment. It uses drugs to target specific genes and proteins that help cancer cells survive and grow. Targeted therapy can affect the tissue environment that cancer cells grow in or it can target cells related to cancer growth, like blood vessel cells. How does targeted therapy work to treat cancer?

To develop targeted therapies, researchers work to identify the specific genetic changes that help a tumor grow and change. This is called the drug's "target." An ideal target for this kind of therapy would be a protein that is present in cancer cells but not in healthy cells. Once researchers have identified a target, they develop a drug treatment that attacks it.

Like other treatments, targeted therapies can cause side effects, so it is important that your doctor matches your tumor to the best possible treatment and dose.

Guest Columnist

A Climate In Crisis

"There's one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent threat of a changing climate." — Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the city's Black neighborhoods bore the brunt of the storm. Twelve years later, the Black districts of Houston were devastated by the full force of Hurricane Harvey. In both cases, these natural disasters exacerbated issues in neighborhoods that were already struggling. For years, communities of color have had to struggle through the everlasting effects of structural racism, the legacy of enslavement and socioeconomic factors like redlining, segregation, and poverty, without considering that climate change is likely to exacerbate

Guest Columnist

E. Faye Williams

As I evaluate the diseases of Trumpism and its malignant mutation DeSantism, I look for the answer to an ultimate cure. Sadly, like their progenitors, racism, insecurity, fear and jealousy, there have been inroads to their elimination, but no final and ultimate cure. Taking a page from medical science, it may be a great time to employ a targeted treatment.

Last week, the NAACP issued a formal travel advisory for Florida in response to DeSantis' aggressive attempts to erase Black history and restrict Diversity, Equity,

Marc H. Morial

these existing racial disparities. The most severe harms from climate change fall disproportionately upon underserved communities who are least able to prepare for, and recover from, heat waves, poor air quality, flooding, and other impacts. As a result, they are at higher risk of climate-related health issues including respiratory and cardiovascular disease, heat stroke and cancer.

Climate change and racism are arguably two of the biggest challenges of the 21st century, which

Time for Biden to Invoke the 14th Amendment

The stakes are unfathomable — and so it is worth being clear about what is happening.

and Inclusion programs in Florida schools.

The NAACP (of which I am a Life Member) asserts: We won't stand for this kind of hate-inspired leadership.

They continue: This is a state that so clearly devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced, by Black Americans and other marginalized groups.

Gov. DeSantis' decisions to ban an AP course on African American Studies and to sign a bill defunding DEI programs were deliberate attempts at erasing Black history, culture, and identity from Florida's education system … policies like these that perpetuate the systemic disregard of the contributions made by Black Americans and other people of color in the United States.

I applaud the NAACP's travel advisory. Rather than the wellused boycott of an entire entity, the advisory provides the opportunity for a targeted treatment of those entities founded upon principles and philosophies rooted in hatred, while protecting the interWILLIAMS

So it has come to this. House Republicans are about to force the U.S. government to default on paying its debts — obligations that the Congress voted to make. They bluster that they will blow up the economy, tank the dollar, and destroy America's good faith and credit unless they get their way — even as they are bitterly divided about what "their way" means.

According to the Treasury secretary, June 1 is the likely date when the U.S. will hit the so-called "debt ceiling" unless Congress acts. The debt ceiling is a silly gimmick that limits what the U.S. can borrow, even to pay the obligations that the Congress has already committed. Under Donald Trump — who ran up a staggering percentage of the U.S. national debt because of his tax cuts and military and pandemic spending — Democrats agreed to raise the debt ceiling repeatedly without any conditions. What they should have done was repeal the debt ceiling completely.

Now House Republicans want to use it as a weapon of mass destruction to get their way. Since they know that Americans can be scared about debt and deficits, they claim to be concerned about rising deficits, although deficits have been coming down since Trump left office and the pandemic relief measures expired.

In reality, they are more passionate about tax cuts for the wealthy and cor- proves that this problem is systemic. When racism is systemic, it can operate without obvious intent. So, how does one address systemic problems?

With systemic and equitable solutions.

In April, the National Urban League released its 47th State of Black America report, "Democracy in Peril: Confronting the Threat Within," where ACORE, our nation's foremost experts on environmental justice, energy policy, renewable energy, and civil rights, examine the past and present impacts of fossil fuel and other pollution on Black, Brown, and underserved communities, and illustrate a realistic path forward toward realizing a truly just and equitable clean energy future.

This future is defined by American-made renewable energy.

With the billions of dollars American companies plan to invest in new wind, solar and battery storage projects, this will great-

MORIAL Page 54 porations than they are about reducing deficits. They refuse to consider any package that asks the rich and corporations to pay their part.

They are also more passionate about military spending than they are about curbing "out of control" spending. So they focus on cutting programs for the most vulnerable, even though it is the military budget that has been rising the fastest, and is the biggest source of waste, fraud and abuse in the government.

In the end, their extortion isn't about debt or deficits but about pri- orities. They favor tax breaks for the rich and corporations and cuts and punitive measures on any program that provides aid to the vulnerable — Medicaid, student aid, income support, aid for women with dependent children, housing, schools. They demand a complete roll back of Biden's efforts to address climate change. They would revive billions in tax breaks for oil companies and repeal incentives for renewable energy or elective vehicles. They demand

JACKSON Page 54