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Attention City Desk, Medical, Health, Science, Life Editors:Colorectal Cancer Association of CanadaCOLORECTAL CANCER PREVENT IT OR TREAT ITMontreal, April 11 /CNW/- Faced with the fact that approximately 20,000 Canadian men and women will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer and 8,500 Canadians will die from it this year, Canadians should be outraged knowing that most of these deaths could have been prevented. “Colorectal cancer is highly preventable through regular screening and early detection. So why are we silently accepting these losses? Why have our Provincial health ministries not created screening programs similar to those that exist for breast cancer or prostate cancer?” said Barry D. Stein president of the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada (CCAC). All Provincial health ministries have been on notice since at least 2002 that screening programs for colorectal cancer were recommended. In 2002 the National Committee on Colorectal Cancer Screening (NCCCS) comprised of an expert panel and key organizations from across the country released its recommendations calling for population-based screening at least every two years with a fecal occult blood test (FOBT) for those between the ages of 50-74 years old, yet to date not one Province has implemented even this limited program. “The CCAC views the failure of the Provinces to implement colorectal cancer screening as being an extremely short-sighted approach. As the cost of treatment escalates Provincial health ministries are now panicking and making unreasonable and unethical decisions by limiting access to treatment as they refuse to cover the cost of treating patients with advanced disease with what has become the standard of care elsewhere and in particular in the United States,” says Stein. Patients are calling the CCAC daily for information on Avastin (Bevacizumab), one of the latest and most significant treatment advances to date. Avastin was approved in Canada last year and has been shown to prolong the survival of patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Saskatchewan and Ontario have already refused reimbursement of Avastin .The CCAC is calling on all Provincial health ministries not only to bring in screening programs, but to pay for these treatments where they do not at present do so. Ontario and Alberta are also not even paying for one of the most standard of treatments, Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin). Patients are forced to rely in part on a compassionate care program that the manufacturer has set up to assist patients and pay the balance themselves. “When the Provinces do not reimburse the cost of these treatments it not only creates a two tiered system, but it actually deprives patients of the opportunity to prolong their life or even find a cure”, says Stein. The CCAC commends those Provinces such as British Columbia, Quebec (in some hospitals) and New Brunswick (in some hospitals) who have acted responsibly and do cover these costs for the treatment of the disease on a case by case basis. This is exactly what Canadians’ should expect from their Health Ministries across the Country and it is good to see that at least in some Provinces these issues are being properly addressed. “We are starting to wonder if those Provinces who are not covering the cost of these treatments are testing the will of colorectal cancer patients to be proactive to obtain the standard of care they are entitled to, but who are clearly in the most fragile of positions as they struggle to survive. These Provinces are applying a costing model which is not appropriate in the case of oncology products and depriving patients of the treatments they should be entitled to. Clearly, there is little point in approving medications and then rendering them inaccessible to patients by not covering the cost of the treatment,” said Stein. The CCAC argues that our Governments owe patients an even higher duty of care to ensure that they receive equal and timely access to treatment including, but not limited to, the latest medications that constitute the standard of care in the treatment of this disease, as they have known for years that this cancer could be prevented in large part through the implementation of screening programs. NOTES TO EDITORS:About colon cancerColorectal cancer - cancer of the colon or rectum - is the second leading cause of cancer deaths overall in men and women. The disease surpasses both breast and prostate cancer in mortality, and is second only to lung cancer in numbers of cancer deaths. Even though it is preventable, an estimated 19,600 (20,000 estimated this year) Canadians were diagnosed with CRC last year, and an estimated 8,400 (8,500 estimated this year) died from the disease. An almost equal number of men and women are diagnosed each year with CRC in Canada. About CCACThe Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada is a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase awareness and educate Canadians about colorectal cancer, support patients and their families, and advocate for a national screening policy and timely access to treatment and diagnostics. For more information, please visit www.ccac-accc.ca or call the toll-free info line at 1-877-50COLON. Visit the CCAC's website for additional information on colorectal cancer at www.ccac-accc.ca. For further information or to schedule an interview with a patient or
physician, please contact: Barry D. Stein, President, Colorectal Cancer
Association of Canada, (514) 875-7899, bstein@ccac-accc.ca;
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