Volunteers from all over California form first coalition of its kind

A new coalition — California Colorectal Cancer Coalition or, 4Cs — has been formed to develop programs that will improve the screening rates for colon cancer.

The survival rate of colon cancer is 90 percent when caught early, before it extends beyond the intestinal wall. But only 38 percent of colon cancer in California was diagnosed in early stage, compared with 75 percent for prostate and 66 percent for breast cancer. These high rates of early diagnoses are in part due to public awareness campaigns, access to care and insurance coverage.

Many attempts have been made to increase the rate of screening for colon cancer. Katie Couric has been an advocate on national television for colon cancer screening and locally a “colon cancer free zone” was established by the American Cancer Society to rally the community around the issue.

The gold standard test for colon cancer is a colonoscopy, which is a deterrent for most people, causing them to put off the test until it may be too late. In 2007, 5,285 people in California are expected to die from colon cancer, out of a total 54,340 cancer deaths, according to the California Cancer Registry estimates.

In January, the board for the newly formed California Colorectal Cancer Coalition, met for the first time in Long Beach to approve a mission and discuss next steps.

“We are in the very early stages,” said Sandra Robinson, director of mission delivery for the American Cancer Society. Robinson works in the ACS Oakland office, and serves as secretary and treasurer on the “4Cs” board.

There are 25 volunteers from across the state on the board, including Dr. Jon Greif, a physician in Berkeley, who is the board president and vice president Dr. Daniel Anderson, with Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Diego.

The coalition has a lot of work to complete before any programs are implemented. During the spring and summer the coalition will identify its objectives and develop a strategy to address the problem of low screening rates for colon cancer.

The California Cancer Registry has created a state map that identifies areas with low rates of screening, which often are located in poor areas. “It begs the question of whether there is an access to care issue,” Robinson said. “This is the type of information we’ll need to figure out.”

The coalition has received $60,000 in seed money from the American Cancer Society to get the project started, which will mostly pay for legal fees, some advocacy efforts and website Web site development. More funding will be necessary for the volunteer coalition to accomplish its goals, Robinson said. 4Cs is a separate nonprofit organization and not part of the ACS.

“We believe this is important to Californians to increase awareness about colon cancer screening,” she said. “Because this is one cancer we can prevent.”

—By Troy May

Troy May is editor of Bay Area Oncology News. You can reach him at tmay@baoncologynews.com.

Posted on February 14, 2007 09:15 AM