Cover Your Butt

C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition has created an online petition that allows advocates to show their support for the three bills in Congress that will guarantee access to colorectal cancer screening.

Add your name to the petition today!

This information first ran on the C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition’s “Latest News and Updates” blog on July 15, 2008.

Half of Americans over 50 have not been screened for colorectal cancer according to a new survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The 2005 National Health Survey interviewed 31,000 adults, including 13,500 who were over 50. It found that 50 percent of people over the age of 50 had been screened for colorectal cancer, but the other half had not. While this was an improvement over the 43 percent screening rate in 2000, it was far from desirable according to the researchers who analyzed the information. Read the rest of this entry ?

HR 1738, The Colorectal Cancer Prevention, Early Detection, and Treatment Act saw a substantial increase in support after advocates contacted their Members of Congress as part of the C3 Call-on Congress and Congressional Butt-In in March. And it appears that our efforts are working!

C3 has received promising information from the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, where HR 1738 currently resides, that the bill may see some action (in other words: get voted on) sometime this summer.

Don’t let up on the pressure to get this lifesaving legislation passed into law. Click here to take action.

Forty advocates from across the US will come to Washington, DC, on Sunday, March 9th to take the fight against colorectal cancer into the halls of Congress. Their meetings will be a precursor to the Congressional Butt-In on Wednesday, March 19th.

The C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition’s Call-on Congress will provide advocates with information about how the government weighs in on colorectal cancer. They will hear from soldiers in the fight such as:

• Dr. Richard Goldberg, Chief of Hematology and Oncology at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who will talk about how cuts to cancer funding are hurting colorectal cancer patients.
• Reverend Vaughn Profit-Breaux, a colorectal cancer patient who was diagnosed with colorectal cancer early thanks to a state program that is the model for HR 1738, which would guarantee access to colorectal cancer screening to the poor, uninsured and underinsured.

The advocates will then learn how THEY can make a difference for all colorectal cancer patients from leaders in the field such as:

• Jeff Martin, Director of Advocacy Training at the American Cancer Society, who will help the advocates learn how they can build an army of advocates back home.
• Ryan McKee, Legislative Director for Congressman Vito Fossella (R-NY-District 13), who will tell the advocates what to expect when they meet with their Members of Congress; and
• Christopher Kush, MPP, CEO of Soapbox Consulting, who has trained thousands of federal, state, and local advocates to effectively advocate for their issues.

On Tuesday, March 11th, the advocates will descend on Capitol Hill for face-to-face meetings with their Members of Congress and their staff. The advocates will be lobbying for the bills outlined in the Cover Your Butt Campaign and for an increase in cancer funding at the National Cancer Institute.

We’ll celebrate the advocates’ successful meetings at the C3 Advocates and Breaking Boundaries Awards Dinner on Tuesday evening, where we will undoubtedly hear about the many inspiring moments that took place on Capitol Hill that day.

The advocates attending the Call-on Congress come from all walks of life. There will be advocates in their 30s all the way up to their 80s. There will be patients, family members of patients, activists and widows. Many will be making their first trip to Washington, DC. Some of them are very sick.

As they make their way to Washington, DC, today, there is a good chance the advocates are terrified of what we have planned for them. But they come anyway because they are driven by the need to make the world better for themselves and for every other colorectal cancer patient out there. They are soldiers in the fight, and they are our heroes.

During March – Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month – put your colorectal cancer awareness to work and help us pass butt covering legislation.

In about 10 days, colorectal cancer advocates will be on Capitol Hill urging their Members of Congress to support the three pieces of legislation that are supported by the Cover Your Butt Campaign. About a week after that – on Wednesday, March 19^th – we’ll be urging everyone across the US to participate in the Congressional Butt-In, a one-day phone blitz to Capitol Hill.

Take action. Put your Members of Congress on notice that they will be hearing from you and many others throughout Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month about the importance of making colorectal cancer screening available to everyone who needs it.

Anything less is just talk.

Join the Cover Your Butt Cause on Facebook and help us spread the word!

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Mark your calendar to join us for the Congressional Butt-In on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008. It’s a one day phone blitz to Capitol Hill where we’ll be demanding that our Members of Congress COVER OUR BUTTS! Check back in March for more info!

Originally posted on the C3 News and Events blog at www.FightColorectalCancer.org, January 24, 2008

News from the 2008 GI Cancers Symposium

Patients without insurance are twice as likely to be diagnosed with advanced colon or rectal cancer than those with either Medicare or private insurance. Patients whose treatment is covered by Medicaid have a fifty percent larger risk of having an advanced cancer (stage III or IV).

Being diagnosed at stage III, where cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes, or stage IV, where cancer is found in distant organs, greatly decreases the chances that the patient will survive.

Researchers with the American Cancer Society studied nearly half a million patients diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer between 1998 and 2004, whose cases were entered in the National Cancer Data Base. The NCDB includes about 75% of all US cancer patients.

The majority of patients (61.0 percent) were 65 or older and covered by Medicare, another 32.4 percent had private insurance. Two percent were uninsured and 2.5 percent were covered by Medicaid. Another 2.2 percent had Medicare, but were younger than 65.

The scientists calculated the odds that patients without insurance, covered by Medicaid, or covered by Medicare would be diagnosed with later stage cancer compared to those with private insurance.

More likely to be diagnosed with stage II rather than stage I disease:

• Uninsured patients: 90 percent more likely or almost twice the risk.
• Medicaid-covered: 40 percent more likely or about half again the risk.
• Medicare: no difference for either those 65 and older or those under 65.

More likely to be diagnosed with stage III or IV versus stage I

• Uninsured patients: 100 percent more likely or twice the risk.
• Medicaid patients: fifty percent more likely
• Medicare: no significant difference

The research team also found other factors that were associated with advanced stage at diagnosis including:

• Black or Hispanic race
• Females
• Older age
• Treatment in non-teaching hospitals or hospitals that did not do research
• Residence in zip codes with lower incomes and lower educational levels

Michael T. Halpern, MD, PhD, and his colleagues at Health Services Research at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta concluded,

Uninsured and Medicaid patients with colorectal cancer have increased likelihoods of more advanced disease at diagnosis compared to patients with private insurance. Improved screening and access to other medical care among these underserved populations may reduce this substantial disparity.

SOURCE: Halpern et al, Association between insurance status and stage at diagnosis for patients with colorectal cancer, 2008 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, abstract number 275.

ReachMD, XM Channel 157, is running an interview through Sunday, December 9th with Carlea Bauman, President of C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition - and she was talking about uncovered butts.

For a schedule of running times or to listen to the interview, click here.
(requires free registration)

Cover your Butt would like to welcome to the Coalition of Butts, the Intercultural Cancer Caucus.

The Caucus was established for the purpose of public policy advocacy to eliminate the unequal burden of cancer among racial and ethnic minorities and medically underserved populations in the US and its associated territories.

If your organization would like to join the Coalition of Butts, send us an email at info@fightcolorectalcancer.org.