Doctors, directors and advocates gathered together for the first time at the Peppermill Hotel and Casino Friday in an effort to organize Nevada's attack on cancer.

Several leaders called the first cancer control summit a response to a "cancer crisis" that is starting in Las Vegas and rippling up to northern Nevada.

"Every state has a cancer plan … and Nevada is behind," said Hala Moddelmog, president and CEO of the Susan G. Komen foundation. "There is not a lot of implementation."

Locally, Tiffany Hoover, executive director of the northern Nevada branch of the Susan G. Komen foundation, said she is also concerned about the local response to cancer care.

"The sense of being together and taken seriously … is much more ingrained in other states," Hoover said. "It is taken seriously and it has its notoriety."

As they gathered together as cancer specialists for the first time, organizers said that their main concern was not research funding but providing affordable access to care for underinsured cancer patients.

"Our poorest and our neediest are being denied cancer care," said Sheila Baez, oncology program manager for Renown Regional Medical Center and the summit's organizer.

The advocate's concerns began in southern Nevada late last month when the University Medical Center in Las Vegas closed its outpatient cancer treatment program. The center, which generally provides for low-income patients, cited concerns over Medicaid budget reductions as the reason for scaling back.

As cancer treatment services for the underinsured and non-insured begin to dry up in southern Nevada, Baez is concerned that the trend will spread statewide.

In her keynote address, Baez stressed the need for a united front by all Nevada cancer professionals in the shadow of rumors circulating that Nevada may sell off its tobacco settlement money to alleviate strain on the state's budget crunch.

The funds flow from a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies that infused more than $259 million into Nevada's higher education and health care needs, including cancer treatment for underinsured patients.

"The lieutenant governor in the past has advocated the securitization of the tobacco settlement," said Kathy Besser, chief of staff for Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki.

However, Besser added that selling the tobacco settlement is not something the lieutenant governor is currently pursuing due to the small return the state might get on such a sale in light of current economic conditions.

"Part of that selling the tobacco settlement is selling it in bonds," Besser said. "It would not be timely right now."

Baez explained that if the funding is cut and lowered to certain levels for programs in Nevada, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will pull its funding for cancer programs.

Hoover said that the focus of cancer work has shifted in the past few years from research to access.

"In our own city and community there are so many access barriers … between the patient and their care," Hoover said, adding that the Komen foundation places great emphasis on providing access to care.

"In this economic crisis one of the first things employers take off their checklists are health care benefits," Hoover said. "Now people are taking it upon themselves to find those benefits."

Hoover added that in many cases, she suggests participation in clinical trials for cancer patients who are strapped for money.

"It is not the kind of thing that a person normally knows how to navigate," Hoover said.

"Reno should be proud to host this," she added. "We want to come away with the sense that we are a coordinated community and we can make a difference."