Am I reading this right?
J
canoe.ca381464.htmlOpen ↗
Ontario pushes colorectal cancer screening
ANTONELLA ARTUSO, Free Press Queen's Park Bureau Chief
2004-03-14
03:16:08
TORONTO -- The Ontario Liberal government is taking the
first step toward a provincial screening policy for a
preventable form of cancer that kills thousands. Health
Minister George Smitherman said he's investing $1.18
million in a pilot project to increase awareness of
colorectal cancer.
Smitherman said testing is covered by OHIP but screening
rates are too low -- and the message clearly needs to get
out to doctors and their patients.
"We're keen to see higher rates of participation in
screening," Smitherman said.
The minister said the one-year pilot project, conducted by
Cancer Care Ontario, will be followed by a provincial
colorectal cancer screening policy for people more than 50
years of age.
Barry Stein, president of the Colorectal Cancer Association
of Canada, said no province has a screening policy, even
though colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of
cancer death overall in men and women.
Calls for a national screening policy have gone unheeded by
the federal government, so it's especially important that
provincial governments act, he said.
"We should have a policy in place saying people should be
screened at 50," Stein said. "It's something that will
easily save thousands of lives in Canada."
Last year, about 18,000 Canadians were diagnosed with
colorectal cancer and 8,300 people died from the disease.
Cancer of the colon or rectum can be detected in about 30
per cent of patients through a relatively cheap and simple
blood test, Stein said.
A colonoscopy, a procedure in which a colonoscope is
inserted into the rectum to inspect the colon lining, is the
most effective way to detect this form of cancer. Used early
enough, it can detect pre-cancerous growths.
Katherine Luchuk of Millbrook, who was diagnosed last
October at age 29, said the least the government could do is
start blood testing at age 50.
"It's the bare minimum because there's so much they don't
know about colorectal cancer," she said.