Calls Up Black Screening for Colon Cancer

Telephone outreach can dramatically increase the incidence of screening for colorectal cancer in an urban minority population, say New York researchers.

The study suggests a promising strategy for increasing colorectal cancer screening, which may help reduce colorectal cancer incidence and death in African-American men and women, who are at significantly higher risk for both than their white counterparts.

Past studies have shown that African-Americans are less likely to receive colorectal cancer screening, which when conducted regularly via three-day stool blood test reduces mortality by as much as 15 percent to 33 percent. With early detection, five-year colorectal cancer survival rates exceed 90 percent, according to Charles E. Basch of Teachers College at Columbia University.

There’s a clear connection between African-Americans’ high rates for developing and dying from colon cancer and their low rates of screening at the age when colon cancer becomes a significant risk, said Basch. This study is the first to demonstrate that telephone outreach can dramatically increase the rate of colorectal cancer screening in an urban minority population.

The findings are published in the American Journal of Public Health.