Kentucky Governor Signs Colorectal Cancer Screening Bills

Governor Steve Besher signed into law two critical pieces of colorectal cancer legislation last week. House Bill 415, which would create colorectal cancer screening program at the Department of Health for uninsured individuals between the ages of 50 and 64 as well as others at high risk; and Senate Bill 96, which would require health benefit plans to provide coverage for colorectal cancer screenings.

C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition would like to thank Governor Beshear, the Kentucky Legislature and all of the hardworking colon and rectal cancer advocates in Kentucky who helped to pass this legislation.

To read more about this click here.

Posted by Dusty Weaver on April 24th, 2008
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GINA Passes

The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) passed in the Senate on Thursday with a vote of 95 – 0. Senator Coburn (R-OK), who had put a hold on the legislation, came to an agreement with his colleagues paving the way for the bill. GINA has had large support in the past, but has never managed to pass both houses in the same session.

The bill makes it illegal for health insurers to deny coverage or charge a higher rate or premium to an otherwise healthy individual found to have a potential genetic condition or genetic predisposition towards a disease or disorder. GINA also makes it illegal for employers to use an employee’s genetic information when making hiring, firing, placement, or promotion decisions.

GINA now now goes to the House, which passed it by a wide margin last year and is expected to do so again.

President Bush has indicated that he will sign the bill.

To read The Hill Article click here

Posted by Joe Arite on April 24th, 2008
Posted in: Policy & Advocacy News | 1 Comment »

Take Action and Support the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)

It looks like the hold placed on The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) will be lifted and the Senate will vote on the legislation either tonight or tomorrow.

The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) makes it illegal for health insurers to deny coverage or charge a higher rate or premium to an otherwise healthy individual found to have a potential genetic condition or genetic predisposition towards a disease or disorder. GINA also makes it illegal for employers to use an employee’s genetic information when making hiring, firing, placement, or promotion decisions.

Please click here to see if your Senators support the legislation.

If not…Get on the phone and urge them to vote in favor of the bill.

Click here to find your Senator’s office number..

Posted by Joe Arite on April 23rd, 2008
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New treatment for anal cancer less successful than standard therapy

Chemoradiation is the standard primary treatment for cancer of the anal canal.  Current standard treatment combines radiotherapy with 5FU (fluorouracil) and mitomycin.

Studying the possibility of a better treatment, gastrointestinal researchers compared the standard treatment with mitomycin and radiotherapy to a new regimen that combined 5FU with cisplatin and radiotherapy in a randomized clinical trial.  The goal was to find out which treatment was most effective in preventing the cancer from returning within 5 years (disease-free survival).

• Overall, the standard treatment outperformed the new experimental therapy.
• Five year disease-free survival was 60 percent for mitomycin-based treatment compared to 54 percent for cisplatin-based therapy.
• Overall survival at five years was 75 percent for mitomycin, 70 percent for cisplatin.
• 25 percent of the mitomycin group had their cancer come back in the anal canal (local recurrence) compared to 33 percent of the cisplatin group.
• 15 percent of mitomycin patients had cancer spread to distant organs (metastasis) compared to 19 percent of the cisplatin patients.
• 10 percent of mitomycin patients needed a colostomy compared to 19 percent of those receiving cisplatin-based treatment.

However, mitomycin caused more severe drops in blood counts.

Courtesy of JAMA

Led by Jaffer A. Ajani, MD, the research team concluded,

In this population of patients with anal canal carcinoma, cisplatin-based therapy failed to improve disease-free-survival compared with mitomycin-based therapy, but cisplatin-based therapy resulted in a significantly worse colostomy rate. These findings do not support the use of cisplatin in place of mitomycin in combination with fluorouracil and radiotherapy in the treatment of anal canal carcinoma.

The Journal of the American Medical Association includes information for patients describing anal cancer risks, diagnosis, and treatment in the same issue.

SOURCE:  Ajani et al. Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 299, Number 15, April 23, 2008.

Posted by Kate Murphy on April 23rd, 2008
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National Minority Cancer Awareness Week: April 16-26

This is National Minority Cancer Awareness Week — time set aside to consider the additional burden that cancer places on minorities in this country.

African Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer, have their cancer found at a later stage, and die of it.  While colorectal cancer incidence and death rates have been decreasing over the past years for white Americans, they have remained flat for both African American men and African American women.

African Americans have less access to life-saving colorectal cancer screening and fewer are screened.

On April 8, 1987, the U. S. House of Representatives Joint Resolution 119 designated the third week in April as “National Minority Cancer Awareness Week.” In the Congressional Record, the resolution was intended to draw attention to:

An unfortunate, but extremely important fact about cancer. While cancer affects men and women of every age, race, ethnic background and economic class, the disease has a disproportionately severe impact on minorities and the economically disadvantaged.

Although African Americans are more likely to be low-income and uninsured, these factors are not the only reasons for increased risk.  Even with insurance, rates of diagnosis and death are higher than average.

The American College of Gastroenterology recommends that African Americans begin screening earlier at age 45 and that they use colonoscopy as a screening method because of their higher incidence of right-sided polyps and cancers.

To ensure that every American, no matter what ethnicity, income, age, or insurance status, has coverage for colorectal cancer screening, join the Cover Your Butt Campaign.

Posted by Kate Murphy on April 22nd, 2008
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