Galveston County Daily News, March 7, 2008 Dr. David Bessman, director of UTMB's Sickle Cell Center, corrected an article by The Associated Press published in Wednesday's Galveston County Daily News that said that the drug hydroxyurea does not cause cancer. Bessman wrote that the drug "does increase the risk of cancer, especially leukemia in patients who take it for more than a year."