Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Despite Tumbling Contraction Rates, 3 Hot Spots For Colon Cancer Remain
NPR: Despite National Progress, Colorectal Cancer Hot Spots Remain
One of the great successes in the war on cancer has been the steep decline in the death rate from colorectal cancer. Since 1970, the colorectal cancer death rate per 100,000 Americans has been cut in half, falling to 15.1 in 2011 from 29.2 in 1970. ... Even so, colorectal cancer remains the third biggest cancer killer. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 49,700 deaths from colorectal cancer this year. It's also the case that progress against the disease has been uneven. (Hensley, 7/8)
The Washington Post: The 3 Hot Spots In The U.S. With The Highest Colon Cancer Death Rates
Although the risk of death from colorectal cancer in the United States has dropped dramatically in recent decades, there are three "hot spots" in Appalachia and the rural South where death rates are "unnecessarily high," researchers said. (Sun, 7/8)
NBC News: Colon Cancer Deaths Tumble, But Not In These Hotspots
Colon cancer deaths are moving briskly down across the U.S. — with the exception of three large hotspots, researchers reported Wednesday. A "perfect storm" of high obesity rates, low education and a lack of access to medical care make for frighteningly high colon cancer rates in the Mississippi delta, western Appalachia and the borderland between Virginia and North Carolina, the American Cancer Society finds. "In the Mississippi delta, rates among black men are not declining at all," said Rebecca Siegel of the American Cancer Society, who led the study. (Fox, 7/8)
Meanwhile, a report on a volunteer program that transports cancer patients to their treatments -
Cincinnati Enquirer: Road To Cancer Recovery Is ‘Paved With Volunteers’
The “road to recovery” from cancer is literally paved with volunteers. The Road to Recovery is an American Cancer Society program in which volunteers provide transportation for cancer patients with no other way to get to treatment facilities. Volunteers made almost 1,000 trips for 64 patients in Northern Kentucky alone in a year. (Moynahan, 7/8)
