Seniors’ access to a screening colonoscopy is at risk and YOU can help!

We need you to continue to add your voice and urge your Representative to support H.R. 4120! Simply submit an Action Alert.

H.R. 4120, the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act of 2012, will fix a regulation that requires Medicare beneficiaries to pay coinsurance when their screening colonoscopy involves the removal of a polyp. The current policy can cost patients $100 to $300 and serve as a deterrent to screening.

We need cosponsors for this legislation if it is to pass into law & YOU can help!

Fight those Cougars!

Colon, ovarian, uterine, gastric, renal, and skin cancer. All Lynch syndrome related cancers, and all significantly increased in families with Lynch syndrome mutations. Brain and small bowel cancer risks are also higher.

In addition, new evidence finds that pancreatic and breast cancer are also part of Lynch syndrome.

Today, people living with Lynch syndrome come together with researchers, genetic counselors, and healthcare professionals to spread the word that Lynch syndrome can be managed. But first it needs to be recognized.

Awareness saves lives.

Careful family histories and routine testing after surgery can identify people who have one of the genes that cause Lynch syndrome. When you find one affected person, you can also find family members who also carry the gene. Read the rest of this entry »

In last night’s monthly webinar, colorectal cancer patients were given access to a nutritionist who specializes in helping cancer patients. Kimberly Moore Petersen of the Minnie Pearl Cancer Foundation was the presenter for our March 2012 webinar, “Shape Your Plate to Fight Colorectal Cancer.”

Extensive research has shown that diet and physical activity can significantly reduce your risk of tumor recurrence. Recently, the American Cancer Society issued new Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention.

But what does that mean for patients making day to day lifestyle choices? Find out in this webinar.

Although nearly four out of ten stage III colon cancer patients had serious financial problems during treatment, treatment related expenses were particularly hard on patients under fifty.  After taking all factors into account, young patients were more than fifty times times more likely to experience financial hardship than patients over 75.  Treatment costs drove them to:

• be in debt
• have to borrow money from family or friends
• sell or refinance their homes
• experience a more than 20 percent drop in income

Financial difficulties sometimes led to stopping treatment early despite the fact that nearly all patients had insurance. 5.4 percent skipped treatments and 7.2 percent refused treatment altogether because of financial problems. Young patients were nearly nine times more likely to skip or refuse treatments.

Patients with incomes under $30,000 were six times more likely not to get recommended treatment. Not being able to work because of disability, leave of absence or employment also raised risk of not getting treatment. Read the rest of this entry »

Older men with several kinds of cancer–including colon cancer–do as well or better in the Veterans’ Health Administration as men covered by Medicare, according to a new study published by the Journal of Clinical Oncology in an advanced online release.

The Veterans’ Administration is the nation’s largest integrated health system, providing care for 6 million veterans a year who are eligible because of either service-related disabilities or economic disadvantage. The VHA launched a major reorganization in the mid-1990s to improve its quality of care through electronic records, better care coordination and mistake detection, and improved screening. Read the rest of this entry »