The GW Cancer Center Joins Nearly 1,000 Local and National Organizations to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates Nationwide

Newswise, July 8, 2016 —George Washington University (GW) Cancer Center has joined with nearly 1,000 local and national organizations to support the 80% by 2018 initiative, led by the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (NCCRT), an organization co-founded by ACS and CDC. The 80% by 2018 initiative represents a shared goal to have 80 percent of adults age 50 and over regularly screened for colorectal cancer by 2018.

Colorectal cancer is the nation’s second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths when men and women are combined; however, it is one of only a few cancers that can be prevented. Through proper colorectal cancer screening, doctors can find and remove hidden growths (called “polyps”) in the colon before they become cancerous. Removing polyps can prevent cancer altogether.

“Our support of the 80% by 2018 initiative represents a continuation and recognition of our work in comprehensive cancer control,” said Mandi Pratt-Chapman, associate center director for patient-centered initiatives and health equity for the GW Cancer Center. “We are committed to spreading the word about the importance of regular colorectal cancer screening and supporting the great work of the NCCRT.”

The GW Cancer Center is committed to increasing colorectal cancer screening and has expertise in colorectal cancer information and research.

The GW Cancer Center contributed to the ACS Colorectal Cancer Survivorship Care Guidelines and recently launched a new colorectal cancer survivorship module in its popular e-learning series for primary care providers.

In addition to its provider education work, the GW Cancer Center created a social media toolkit to promote colorectal cancer screening in tandem with the launch of the “80% by 2018 Communications Guidebook: Effective Messaging to Reach the Unscreened.” GW Cancer Center staff have also presented about evaluating colorectal cancer social media campaigns as part of ongoing technical assistance efforts to cancer control professionals. The Center is also an active member of the Comprehensive Cancer Control National Partnership’s Colorectal Cancer Screening Workgroup.

Part of the 80% by 2018 goal is to leverage the energy of multiple and diverse partners to empower communities, patients and providers to increase screening rates.

The 80% by 2018 initiative consists of health care providers, health systems, communities, businesses, community health centers, government, non-profit organizations and patient advocacy groups who are committed to getting more people screened for colorectal cancer to prevent more cancers and save lives.

For more information or to learn about the 80% by 2018 pledge, visit http://nccrt.org/tools/80-percent-by-2018/.

Precision Prevention of Colorectal Cancer

Preventing cancer and other diseases may not be ‘one size fits all’

Newswise, April 21, 2016– Precision medicine’s public face is that of disease — and better treatments for that disease through targeted therapies.

But precision medicine has an unsung partner that could affect the lives of many more people: Precision prevention — a reflection of the growing realization that preventing cancer and other diseases may not be one-size-fits-all.

“Precision medicine has been kind of a buzzword recently, but often when people think about precision medicine, they think about treatment,” said Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center biostatistician Dr. Li Hsu, who focuses on precision prevention for colorectal cancer. “I think it’s just as important if not more important to prevent disease.”

In work presented Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting in New Orleans, Hsu and other researchers from Fred Hutch, the University of Michigan and other research groups debuted their latest progress in precision prevention — an in-the-works method to predict risk of colorectal cancer that integrates genetic, lifestyle and environmental risk factors.

This research is not yet ready to move into clinical practice, said Fred Hutch epidemiologist Dr. Ulrike "Riki" Peters, one of the study authors. But it’s the first attempt at combining so many different areas of colorectal cancer risk into one convenient risk predictor.

Current risk stratification methods for colorectal cancer screening recommendations are relatively crude, based on age and family history alone. No family history of the disease? Start colonoscopies at age 50. Have an immediate relative who had colorectal cancer? Screen at age 40.

But these methods are likely missing many at risk, Peters said. Eighty percent of those with colorectal cancer have no known family history. And, unlike some, it’s a cancer where screening and prevention are tightly linked — colonoscopies can catch premalignant lesions and if those lesions are removed, the patient is spared from ever developing cancer.

“That is a very unique aspect of colorectal cancer,” Peters said.

Even though the disease is highly preventable if caught in the precancerous stages, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths (for men and women combined) in the U.S., topped only by lung cancer.

So along with encouraging people to get the recommended colonoscopies, a better sieve to catch those at higher risk of the disease could have an impact both on cancer prevention and on sparing those at low risk of the disease unnecessary procedures.

“At the end, what we want to do is prevent disease given limited resources,” said Dr. Jihyoun Jeon, a biostatistician at the University of Michigan who presented the risk prediction model in a poster at the AACR meeting. “We want to save resources but also prevent as much [disease] as possible.”

The improved risk prediction method was developed using data from more than 18,000 people, approximately 8,400 of whom had colorectal cancer. These data come from two large colorectal cancer studies that Peters leads, known as the Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium (GECCO) and the Colorectal Transdisciplinary study (CORECT).

The model incorporates 19 known environmental and lifestyle risk factors for the disease, as well as 64 common genetic risk factors.

Peters and her colleagues have been working for years to identify the genetics behind colorectal cancer.

It was always her goal to use that information to improve risk predictions, she said, but it’s only recently that the team has amassed enough links between genes and disease to be able to work on the precision prevention piece of the puzzle.

The National Cancer Institute funded the research.

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At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, home to three Nobel laureates, interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists seek new and innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. Fred Hutch’s pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation led to the development of immunotherapy, which harnesses the power of the immune system to treat cancer with minimal side effects. 

An independent, nonprofit research institute based in Seattle, Fred Hutch houses the nation’s first and largest cancer prevention research program, as well as the clinical coordinating center of the Women’s Health Initiative and the international headquarters of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. Private contributions are essential for enabling Fred Hutch scientists to explore novel research opportunities that lead to important medical breakthroughs. 

For more information visit fredhutch.org or follow Fred Hutch on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Routine Colonoscopies Save Lives

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Newswise, March 3, 2016 — Stan Quinn’s routine colonoscopy may have saved his life.

When Mr. Quinn, 57, became a new patient at Loyola University Health System last year, his physician prescribed a routine colonoscopy to catch him up on preventive health recommendations.

“I didn’t think anything of it, just that it was a routine exam that was going to reveal nothing wrong,” said Mr. Quinn, who was not experiencing any health problems. “What they actually found was a mass that was too big to remove during the colonoscopy.”

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and the message is simple: this disease is highly preventable. Colorectal cancer is 100 percent preventable through screenings that detect and remove small, pre-cancerous growths called polyps.

Loyola staff will raise awareness for the prevention of colon cancer by wearing blue next Friday, March 4, in support of National Dress in Blue Day™.

Cancer of the colon or rectum is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among both men and women in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 140,000 Americans are diagnosed annually with colorectal cancer, and more than 50,000 people die from it.

“Colorectal cancer really should get the same attention as breast cancer, prostate cancer and skin cancer,” said Theodore Saclarides, MD, division director of colorectal surgery at Loyola. “Regular screenings really do save lives.”

“It is now clear that not every colonoscopy is equal,” says Neil Gupta, MD, co-director of the digestive health program and director of interventional endoscopy at Loyola. “Once you’ve decided it’s time to get a screening colonoscopy, the next step is to make sure that you get a high quality one.”

Loyola offers all of the colorectal cancer screening tests that are recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force and national medical societies. There are two types of colorectal cancer screening tests: tests that detect colorectal cancer and tests that can detect both colorectal cancer and pre-cancerous polyps, Dr. Gupta said. Colonoscopy, CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy), and flexible sigmoidoscopy are all screening tests that can detect colorectal cancer and pre-cancerous polyps.

Stool tests for blood or DNA (such as fecal occult blood test, fecal immunochemical test, or cologuard) are designed to detect colorectal cancer only.

Get checked, Dr. Saclarides advises, if:

You have a change in bowel habits.

You reach an age at which a colonoscopy is recommended. Current guidelines recommend that everyone get screened for colorectal cancer starting at the age of 50.

Your lifestyle and family history predispose you to colon cancer. People with a family history of colorectal cancer or polyps, people with inflammatory bowel disease (such as Crohn’s disease or Ulcerative colitis), and people with hereditary cancer syndromes should start screening earlier.

Loyola physicians perform high quality colonoscopies, performing consistently above the national average on colonoscopy quality measures, including being able to examine the entire colon (cecal intubation rate), having a good bowel prep during the colonoscopy, and detection of pre-cancerous polyps (adenoma detection rate).

“The higher your physician’s adenoma detection rate, the less chance you have of developing colon cancer after your colonoscopy,” said Dr. Gupta, who has an adenoma detection rate of more than 50 percent, meaning he has removed pre-cancerous polyps in more than 50 percent of the screening colonoscopies he has performed. “An adenoma detection rate of at least 20 percent is currently considered a minimum benchmark.”

In addition to the clinic, Loyola treats patients at the GI cancer risk assessment program, where gastroenterologists and geneticists examine and assign a risk to concerned patients.

After Mr. Quinn’s colonoscopy, a biopsy revealed the tumor might be early cancer so the mass had to be removed quickly. Mr. Quinn was referred immediately to Dr. Saclarides, who removed a portion of the colon through laparoscopic surgery, a less-invasive technique involving a small incision, less blood loss and a faster recovery time.

“Stan is basically cured,” Dr. Saclarides said. “And it is all thanks to his getting a colonoscopy, his physicians recommending him to a colorectal surgeon and his being compliant and following through with the procedure.”

Randomized Trials Network Collaborative Research Group.

The National Institutes of Health funded research efforts critical to the study.