Citizen Tribune

Trump’s timely evangelical appeal

A clue into treatments for triple negative breast cancer

President Trump ad-

dressed this year’s annual

Values Voters Summit in

Washington, D.C. He is the

first sitting U.S. president to

do so.

The Values Voters Sum-

mit is hosted by the Family

Research Council, an orga-

nization whose mission is

addressing public policy

and culture from a Christian

point of view. My organiza-

tion CURE works closely

with FRC and I have been a

regular speaker at this Sum-

mit for years.

Its base is largely evan-

gelical Christians, and this

is why President Trump

deemed it appropriate to ap-

pear.

Eighty-one percent of

white evangelicals voted for

Trump in 2016, the highest

percentage of evangelical

support for any Republican

in the last four presidential

elections.

According to the Pew Re-

search Center, 36 percent of

the electorate self-identifies

as evangelical Christian, so

it’s indicative of Trump’s

strong political instincts that

he has gone out to actively

engage this important and

significant base of support.

It’s my sense that Trump’s

relationship with evangeli-

cals is growing stronger.

During the election, he

was by and large an un-

known quantity to these

folks. And given his history,

there was good reason for

evangelicals to have reser-

vations in their support.

But there was one is-

sue critical enough to drive

their support — replacing

Supreme Court Associate

Justice Antonin Scalia with

another judge of equally

stellar conservative creden-

tials.

Trump, as he reminded

the audience in his Values

Voters address, has not let

them down with his ap-

pointment of new Associ-

ate Justice Neil Gorsuch to

replace Scalia, and a string

of equally impressive other

conservative lower court ap-

pointments.

However, since the elec-

tion, Trump has taken ac-

tions that

have ex-

p a n d e d ,

b r o a d -

ened and

shored up

his rela-

tions with

this evan-

g e l i c a l

base.

He be-

gan by re-

i ns t a t i ng

the Mex-

ico City policy, first initi-

ated by President Reagan

in 1984 and later rescinded

by President Obama, which

prohibits U.S foreign aid

from being used by overseas

organizations to perform

abortions.

He recently opened the

door for employers with re-

ligious objections to bail out

of the Obamacare require-

ment of providing birth con-

trol devices and pills to em-

ployees free of charge.

Trump’s clear support of

Israel — he was also the

first sitting American presi-

dent to visit Israel in the ear-

ly months of his presidency

and to visit the Western Wall

in the old city of Jerusalem

— appeals to Evangelicals.

And the recent announce-

ment by the Trump admin-

istration that the United

States will withdraw from

the anti-American, anti-Is-

rael United Nations agency

UNESCO.

As the culture war in

America rages, Trump

understands the political

dividends to be gained by

clearly supporting tradi-

tional Christian values and

unabashed American patrio-

tism.

There has not been a time

more important in recent

history to take on these mat-

ters, and President Trump is

stepping up.

Most in America’s evan-

gelical communities, includ-

ing substantial numbers of

black evangelicals, were ap-

palled when Obama moved

to support LGBTQ secular-

ism, even lighting up the

White House in rainbow flag

colors. Equally appalling to

evangelicals was Obama

agreeing to be the first sit-

ting American president to

address the annual meet-

ing of Planned Parenthood,

America’s largest abortion

provider, concluding his ad-

dress to these abortionists

with, “God bless you.”

In recent Gallup polling,

in response to the ques-

tion if government “should

promote traditional values

in our society,” 66 percent

of Republicans versus 30

percent of Democrats say

“yes.”

Addressing this conserva-

tive Republican base is what

Trump took on in his Values

Voters speech. He conveyed

what our Founding Fathers

understood — that a free

society needs morality and

morality needs religion, a

nation under God.

While liberals are tiptoe-

ing around the underlying

truths conveyed by Trump

at the Values Voters sum-

mit, millions of Americans

across all ethnic lines are

listening to the president’s

message and are ready to

hear more.

- Star Parker is a syndi-

cated columnist for Cre-

ators Syndicate, Inc.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

A-4

Corker is a

profile in courage

Let’s get one thing straight about this

Twitter-fueled squabble between President

Donald Trump and Senator Bob Corker.

Members of Congress do not work for

the president of the United States.

They do not pledge an oath of loyalty to

the president of United States.

The only oath they take is to the U.S.

Constitution, which means they serve the

people.

The role of Congress is to keep checks

and balances on the executive branch, not

to curry favor with the president, regard-

less of how much he demands obeisance.

The people elect members of Congress

to be independent, to represent their inter-

ests and to make tough decisions that may

not always be popular — for the good of

the country.

The Trump-Corker scrap has been a

terrible distraction. It started as a series of

tweets last Sunday by the president, who

showed once again how he has no control

over his impulses.

In seeking to humiliate Corker, a fel-

low Republican who is choosing to retire

rather than run for re-election in 2018,

Trump may not have expected a response

back because Corker is typically above the

fray.

But Corker, R-Chattanooga, chose to

respond with a snarky comeback. Boy, did

that start a firestorm.

Former White House senior adviser Ste-

phen Bannon on Monday called on Corker

to resign.

That is just ludicrous. Criticizing an

elected official is not a fireable offense,

otherwise Trump should have resigned

long ago.

Congressman Diane Black, R-Gallatin,

who is running for Tennessee governor,

used Corker’s description of the White

House as an “adult day care center” to

describe the Senate.

No, the Senate is not an adult daycare

center, it is a constitutionally delibera-

tive body, which should take its time to

pass legislation and not hastily pass bills

without the opportunity for the public to

understand what is going on.

Meanwhile, Corker’s spokeswoman said

any notion that the senator would resign

was “ridiculous.”

Corker should resist efforts to oust him

before the end of his term in January 2019.

If he needs inspiration, he (and his col-

leagues) should re-read John F. Kennedy’s

Pulitzer Prize winning book “Profiles in

Courage” about eight courageous senators

who chose to act out of principle in spite

of the damage to their political futures.

The immortal words of 19th Century

Sen. Daniel Webster, one of the men pro-

filed, rings true today:

“I shall stand by the Union ...with abso-

lute disregard of personal consequences

... Let the consequences be what they they

will, I am careless. No man can suffer too

much, and no man can fall too soon, if he

suffer or if he fall in defense of the liber-

ties and Constitution of his country.”

–The Tennesseean, Nashville

Editorial

When a woman finds a lump in

her breast, her doctor’s first move

is usually to recommend a biopsy –

that is, to remove a small portion of

the lump for analysis. If the lump

is cancerous, doctors test for three

different clinical markers: estrogen

receptor, progesterone receptor and

human epidermal growth factor re-

ceptor. The results determine what

kind of hormone or growth factor

receptor treatment the patient re-

ceives.

About 15-20 percent of breast

cancers, though, don’t test posi-

tive for any of the three markers.

They’re called triple negative breast

cancers, and they’re big trouble.

Treatments developed for cancers

that test positive for any of the three

different markers will not work on

triple negative breast cancers.

Triple negative breast cancers are

more aggressive and more likely to

spread throughout the body.

At the recent International Triple

Negative Breast Cancer Conference

in Atlanta, I presented findings that

show promise of improving treat-

ment and outcomes for some wom-

en with the disease, even though

more study is needed to confirm

my findings.

The five-year survival rate for

women with triple negative breast

cancer is lower – 77 percent – than

the five-year survival rate – 93 per-

cent – for women whose cancers

have one of the three receptors.

Also, because there are no hor-

mone-targeted treatments for triple

negative breast

cancer, women

often must en-

dure

harsher

treatments like

radiation

and

chemotherapy.

Black women

are about three

times

likely than white

women to devel-

op triple nega-

tive breast can-

cer, a difference

that could be due to their genetics.

Most researchers working on

triple negative breast cancers study

the tumor themselves. But my re-

search looked at the disease from

a different angle – the way the pa-

tient’s own body attacks the tumor.

When a woman gets breast can-

cer, her immune system leaps into

gear. Her body sends tumor infil-

trating lymphocytes to target and

kill the tumor cells.

Researchers and I looked at 103

early-stage patients with triple neg-

ative breast cancer, 71 of themAfri-

can-American and the rest Europe-

an-American, to see whether there

was a difference in tumor-infiltrat-

ing lymphocyte count. Tumor-infil-

trating lymphocytes were evaluated

in hemotoxylin- and eosin-stained

tissue sections according to the

International TILs Working Group

2014 guidelines by pathologists we

collaborate with at Emory Univer-

sity Hospital. We found that theAf-

rican-Americans had a significantly

higher level of tumor infiltrating

lymphocytes in early-stage cancer

than white women.

We also found higher tumor infil-

trating lymphocyte levels in early-

stage African-American patients

who were diagnosed at a young age

or tested negative for a fourth com-

mon clinical marker, androgen re-

ceptor. African-American women

are more likely to be diagnosed

with triple negative breast cancer

at younger age and lack androgen

receptor, factors associated with

more aggressive disease, compared

to white women.

Maybe most importantly, we

found that we could use the level

of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes

to predict a greater or lower risk of

death: The more tumor infiltrating

lymphocytes, the better the sur-

vival we found among early-stage

African-American cancer patients.

High levels of tumor infiltrating

lymphocytes also seem to correlate

with higher levels of DNA damage

within the tumor. If this correlation

bears out in further research, doc-

tors could use it to predict response

to DNA repair therapies for a spe-

cific patient.

Finally, our study pointed to the

possibility of an exciting new form

of treatment: adoptive T cell thera-

py. In adoptive T cell therapy, doc-

tors extract immune cells from a pa-

tient and genetically engineer them

to expand the patient’s T cells. The

cells are then infused back into the

patient to improve her anti-tumor

response.

Adoptive cell therapy has already

shown promise in melanoma pa-

tients, and it is currently in clini-

cal trials as a treatment option for

breast cancer patients. From our

research, we already know who

might be most likely to respond to

the treatment: African-American

women, in the early stages of the

disease, whose tumor infiltrating

lymphocyte count is lower than

normal. However, we plan to vali-

date these results in additional pa-

tient cohorts.

Triple negative breast cancer is

a scary disease – aggressive, rap-

id-spreading and insusceptible to

the hormone treatments we use to

target most breast cancers. But our

next key to fighting it might not be

in the tumor at all. It just might be

tumor infiltrating lymphocytes,

those tiny anti-cancer warriors our

own bodies throw into the fray.

- Nikita Wright is a Ph.D. can-

didate in biology at Georgia State

University.

USPS-780-720

Member Audit

Bureau of Circulation

Published by the Citizen Tri-

bune, a division of Lakeway Pub-

lishers, Inc., 1609 W. First North

Street, Morristown, Tennessee

37814, P.O. Box 625 daily and

Sunday except Saturday. Periodi-

cals paid at Morristown, Tennes-

see.

Republications of all matter

herein is prohibited without the

express consent of the publisher.

POSTMASTER: Send change

of address to Citizen Tribune, P.O.

Box 625, Morristown, TN 37815.

Morristown

423-581-5630

Jefferson County

865-475-5630

Rogersville

423-235-5630

The

Citizen Tribune’s

editorial page provides an

open forum for the pub-

lic to exchange ideas and

opinions. We urge writers

to stick to the issues in their

letters, avoiding personal at-

tacks. Libelous statements

and inappropriate language

are not acceptable.

All submissions must be

signed by the writer and

include an address and tele-

phone number for verifica-

tion of authorship.

The

Citizen Tribune

re-

serves the right to refuse any

letter, at any time, for any

reason. The

Citizen Tri-

bune

reserves the right to

edit submissions for length

and/or content.

Please send all submis-

sions to: John Gullion

Managing Editor

C/O The Citizen Tribune

P.O. Box 625

Morristown, Tenn. 37815

No faxes or emails al-

lowed.

Miss your paper?

Didn’t get your paper? We

want to make it right.

Call our redelivery hotline

at 581-5630 Ext. 366 and

we will get the paper to you

quickly.

On Monday- Friday, call

the Tribune between 5 p.m. -

7 p.m. for a replacement pa-

per in the following zip codes

37813, 37814 and 37877.

On Sunday call between

the hours of 8 a.m. and 12

p.m., we will have a paper

redelivered promptly. All

carriers are independent con-

tractors.

To ensure proper credit

please send advance pay-

ments to:

Citizen Tribune

PO BOX 625

Morristown TN 37815

Got an opinion?

Don’t want to take the

time to send a letter to the

editor?

We still want to know

what you think. Go to our

Web site,

www.citizentri

bune.com and click on the

link to our weekly poll ques-

tion and vote.

Last week we asked, are

Confederate statues racially

insensitive? Eighty five per-

cent said no, while fifteen

percent said yes.

This week, will Butch

Jones still be Tennessee’s

coach at the end of this sea-

son?

Opinion

John Gullion

Managing Editor

Don Lovelace

Circulation Director

Ricky Ball

Production Manager

R. Michael Fishman

Publisher Editor

Lakeway Publishers Inc.

R. Jack Fishman

President

Your Opinion Counts

Mike Walker

Sales & Marketing Director

Rates

Daily & Sunday

• 3 months $46.00

• 6 months $89.00

• 1 year $164.95

Best Rate

• EZ Pay $12.00 a month

Nikita

Wright

Star

Parker