Briefly: African Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer at later stages and have surgery less often which contributes to their poorer survival.  Women have a greater risk of a missed or early colorectal cancer after a negative colonoscopy.

If you can’t have a loved one with you during a painful procedure, just looking at your partner’s picture may make it hurt less.

The American Society for Radiation Oncology has a new website for patients, and open enrollment for Medicare plan coverage begins on November 15 and extends through the end of the year. Read the rest of this entry »

Catherine Knowles is C3′s new Director of Policy

The health care reform debate continues.  Last week, the Senate Finance Committee discussed Senator Baucus’s proposal and considered hundreds of amendments.  The Committee will hold a final vote on the proposed bill later this week.  This will allow the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) time to complete its analysis of the bill and provide a final cost estimate.  After the Finance Committee has approved the bill, it will be combined with the bill from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee before it is scheduled for a vote on the floor by the full Senate.

C3 has been closely following the various health reform proposals introduced in Congress, because access to care is critical to preventing, treating and beating colorectal cancer.  Please feel free to share your thoughts with us by leaving comments below.

Continue reading for more information on some of the amendments adopted by the Senate Finance Committee that C3 thinks are important for people living with colorectal cancer.

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Not having insurance reduces the chance that someone with colorectal cancer will live a year after their diagnosis.  Even when patients from 18 to 64 have other illnesses, their insurance status makes a difference in survival.

Risk of dying during that first year was 50 to 90 percent higher among the uninsured.  They were more likely to diagnosed at an advanced stage and live in poor neighborhoods.

Other illness (comorbidities) was lowest in privately insured patients and highest in patients under 65 on Medicare, who were likely to have Medicare because of a disability. Read the rest of this entry »

Farrah Fawcett died on Thursday, June 25, 2009 of anal cancer that had spread to her liver.  She was 62.  Anal cancer is much more rare than either colon or rectal cancer, affecting about 5,300 Americans in 2009. 710 will die from it.

In other headlines, the Caterpillar company works with Peoria hospitals and doctors to ensure quality colonoscopy for their employees and a Swiss laboratory will be the first to offer a blood screening test for colorectal cancer.

In research, MRI colonography is useful for patients who can’t have a full colonoscopy before surgery, screening colonoscopies are increasing for Medicare enrollees, and scientists have found factors in tumors that make nerves more sensitive to pain.

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Elderly people whose health care is covered by Medicare report fewer problems and higher satisfaction with their care than younger patients whose health insurance is provided by their employers. Although the older Medicare beneficiaries have lower incomes and poorer health than the employer-covered group, they reported less difficulty paying their bills, fewer problems finding medical care, and higher overall satisfaction with that care.

Information comes from an analysis of the Commonwealth Fund 2007 Biennial Health Insurance Survey, a nationally representative telephone survey of 3,501 adults age nineteen and older living in United States.   Even counting those who refused to participate and those who could not be reached by phone, the survey’s response rate was almost 50 percent. Read the rest of this entry »