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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded a total of $22 million to 26 states and tribal organizations to provide colorectal cancer screening services for low-income people aged 50-64 years, who are underinsured or uninsured. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men and women aged 50 and
older in the United States.
The awards range from $358,283 to $1.1 million. The awardees are
expected to begin screening patients for colorectal cancer within six
months.
The states receiving five-year awards are: Alabama, Arizona, California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico,
New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, and Washington. The
tribal organizations receiving awards are: Alaska Native Tribal Health
Consortium, Arctic Slope Native Association, South Puget Intertribal
Planning Agency, and Southcentral Foundation.
The funding will support screening and diagnostic follow-up care, data
collection and tracking, public education and outreach, provider
education, and an evaluation to measure the clinical outcomes, costs,
and effectiveness of the program. The awardees can choose from among
any of the recommended screenings for colorectal cancer – colonoscopy,
sigmoidoscopy and stool testing.
“Colorectal cancer kills more people than any other cancer except lung
cancer,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “These
colorectal cancer screening awards will save lives. We need to reach
more adults aged 50 and over and others at high risk to prevent
colorectal cancer.”
In 2005, more than 141,000 new cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed
and 53,000 people died from this disease. The number of new colorectal
cancer cases could be reduced by as much as 90 percent if all
precancerous polyps (abnormal growths in the colon or rectum), were
identified using screening tests and removed before they become
cancerous. However, only half of all U.S. adults aged 50 or older have
been screened appropriately for colorectal cancer, and while screening
rates are slowly increasing, disparities still exist. Screening rates
remain higher for whites compared to all other races, for non-Hispanics
compared to Hispanics, and for people with health insurance compared to
those with no health insurance.
“Screening tests can detect colorectal cancer at its earliest stages,
when it is most treatable,” said Laura Seeff, M.D., medical director of
CDC’s colorectal cancer screening program. “This screening program has
tremendous potential to address the disparities that exist in colorectal
cancer screening and to save lives.”
The goals of CDC’s colorectal cancer screening program are to increase
population-level screening among all persons aged 50 and older in the
participating states and tribes, and to reduce health disparities in
colorectal cancer screening, incidence and mortality.
For more information about CDC’s efforts to prevent colorectal cancer,
visit www.cdc.gov/cancer/colorectal and www.cdc.gov/screenforlife.
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