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SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 60

TH LEGISLATURE

- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -

FIRST SESSION

, 2007

INTRODUCED BY

Cisco McSorley

A JOINT MEMORIAL

URGING THE STATE TO SUPPORT RESEARCH ON ADVANCED PARTICLE BEAM

CANCER THERAPY, A PROMISING CLINICAL APPLICATION THAT SHOULD BE

AVAILABLE TO ALL CANCER PATIENTS.

WHEREAS, cancer is a devastating disease that has enormous

consequences for those affected and their families; and

WHEREAS, in the last six decades, proton beam therapy has

been perfected for clinical use and used with high success to

treat many types of tumors; and

WHEREAS, continuing research has shown that heavier

particles, such as carbon ions, when used in cancer therapy,

can have a higher biological effectiveness than proton beam

therapy; and

WHEREAS, antiproton particle beams are anticipated to have

an even better efficiency in destroying tumors without harming

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surrounding tissue; and

WHEREAS, research using antiproton particle beams has just

begun in Europe with promising results; and

WHEREAS, New Mexico is an ideal location for advanced

particle beam cancer therapy research because it is the home of

Los Alamos national laboratory, Sandia national laboratories

and the university of New Mexico medical school; and

WHEREAS, Michael Holzscheiter, a renowned physicist and

one of the world's foremost experts on advanced particle beam

cancer therapy, is now living in New Mexico while conducting

his ongoing research locally and at CERN, a large particle

physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE

STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the interim legislative health and

human services committee and the legislative finance committee

be requested to schedule a presentation and report by physicist

Michael Holzscheiter by September 2007 to learn more about the

medical application of advanced particle beam cancer therapy

and to identify new sources of funding to support ongoing

research in New Mexico; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

transmitted to the department of health, the human services

department, the legislative finance committee, the New Mexico

legislative council and the board of regents of the university

of New Mexico.