In his speech before a joint session of Congress on September 9, 2009, President Obama called out colorectal cancer screening as saving both money and lives.  To applause from listening members of Congress, he said:

And insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies because there’s no reason we shouldn’t be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer before they get worse. That makes sense, it saves money, and it saves lives.

We applaud the President’s public acknowledgment that colorectal cancer screening saves lives and money.

Screening saves lives by finding cancers early when they are most treatable.  Screening also prevents colorectal cancer by finding and removing precancerous polyps, which keeps them from ever growing into cancer.

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The Centers for Disease Control has awarded $22 million to 26 states and tribal organizations to provide colorectal cancer screening to the uninsured and underinsured from age 50 to 64.

Through the Colorectal Cancer Control Program, five-year grants ranging from $358,283 to $1.1 million will support support screening and diagnostic follow–up care, data collection, outreach and public education, health care provider education, and program evaluation.  Projects can choose from among recommended screening methods including colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, or stool tests.

The new funding builds on the successful CDC Colorectal Cancer Screening Demonstration Program in five sites across the US, including Baltimore, Long Island, Seattle and King County, Nebraska, and Missouri. Read the rest of this entry »

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) is helping to pay for critically needed colorectal cancer research. In return, scientists and their support staff are hired or kept working, new equipment and supplies are purchased, and local communities benefit economically.

As of July 2009, the National Cancer Institute has used ARRA funds to award 40 grants associated with colorectal cancer research, totaling $7,284,159. The grants support both ongoing and new colorectal cancer research. Read the rest of this entry »

Edward Kennedy 1932-2009

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts died late last night, August 25, 2009, from brain cancer.  He was a long-time friend of health care advocates.

Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he led efforts for better funding for health and cancer research.  He called providing health care insurance for all Americans “the cause of my life” and drafted legislation for health care reform this year.

In his own words,

“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

On Friday, August 7, the Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment of Francis Collins, MD, PhD, as the new director of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Collins is both a physician and an expert in genetics.  He led the Human Genome Project to an early success in identifying and sequencing the 25,000 genes in the human genome and headed the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) from 1993 through 2008. Read the rest of this entry »