Guest guest Posted June 24, 2005 Report Share Posted June 24, 2005 Here's the latest letter: Mr. President, You are someone who wants to make the big changes in this world. President Nixon declared that the United States was in a war against cancer.....thirty-one years ago. Since then we have not conquered even one cancer. Why not be the President who conquers the first one? Colon cancer has proven to start out as a polyp. If you remove the polyp it has been proven that you don't get this cancer. Screening guidelines are set at age 50, yet many people in their 20's, 30's, and 40's get this cancer. My sister was 44. She was lucky. She survived it. Most people under 50 are diagnosed at the final stage of this cancer and so die leaving their family and young children long before it was their time. Screening must be made available for all adult Americans. We need only screen people every 5 to 8 years to conquer this cancer forever. Right now it kills more than 56,000 Americans every single year. More than 135,000 are newly diagnosed each year. At all ages. Approximately 80% of colon cancer incidence has no identified risk factor. A low estimate on treatment costs for those 135,000 people is $80,000. And that is before counting the astronomical costs of the newer drugs. $80,000 times 135,000 means we are spending more than 10 billion dollars on treatment of a cancer that we already know how to prevent. For that amount of money we could screen 28 million people each year. But we don't have to - we only need to screen them every 5 years. Be the President that ends a cancer. No President has ever done that. No one at all has ever done that. You will directly be saving the lives of 56,000 Americans each and every year. Are 56,000 American lives worth screening all adults. The safety of all and the lives of 3,000 Americans was worth going to war. Aren't the lives of 56,000 Americans worth stopping the war against colon cancer by screening all adults starting at age 20? Here are the Guidelines that we are proposing: Colorectal Cancer Network Proposes the Following Screening Guidelines 130,000 to 150,000 people are diagnosed every year with colorectal cancer. 56,000 of them die each year. The majority are diagnosed at Stage 3 or Stage 4. A low estimate of treatment at Stage 3 is $80,000. Multiply that by 130,000 minimum that get diagnosed and you discover that there is greater than $10.4 billion dollars being spent on colorectal cancer treatment every year. For that same amount of money we can screen 13 million people and keep them from getting colorectal cancer in the first place. Our goal is total elimination of colorectal cancer. Not just a reduction in deaths. Not just catching it earlier. This cancer starts as a polyp. Remove the polyp and you don't get this cancer. It's that simple. And being that simple it should be a routine for all adults to be screened for colon cancer. So we propose that screening guidelines should be: Age 20 DNA stool test or equivalent Age 25 DNA stool test or equivalent Age 30 Colonoscopy Age 35 DNA stool test or equivalent Age 40 Colonoscopy And that this pattern should be continued for as long as a person chooses. Not to be stopped by guidelines at the age of 70-75. Guidelines should never include ageism. This proposal could eliminate colon cancer in our lifetime. Making it the first cancer to be conquered ever! CCNetwork ~ PO Box 182 Kensington MD 20895-0182 ~ www.colon-cancer.net ~ " ... it is far better to catch polyps than colon cancer. " -a (Mother Died March 2004) Be the one. Make a change that you will always be remembered for. The war may be controversial. Stopping colon cancer is not. We can stop it so we must. That bears repeating. We can. So we must. Peace and good health, Priscilla A. Savary Executive Director Colorectal Cancer Network PO Box 182, Kensington MD 20895 psavary@... www.colorectal-cancer.net Priscilla A. Savary Executive Director Colorectal Cancer Network PO Box 182, Kensington MD 20895 psavary@... www.colorectal-cancer.net _________ Like to help CCNetwork? Go shopping! That's right, go head and buy something for yourself -- a new CD, the latest bestseller, essentials like toothpaste or vitamins, even a computer. But first join www.iGive.com/CCNetwork . Every time you shop at one of the over 500 name-brand stores in the Mall at iGive.com, we'll receive a donation of up to 26% of each purchase you make, at no cost to you. Remember, donating to CCNetwork won't cost you a thing. But we'll miss out on a lot of extra dough, if you don't join. So visit www.iGive.com/CCNetwork now. Membership is free and your privacy is guaranteed. Click here to join: http://www.iGive.com/CCNetwork Re: An FYI about Med Students I agree with Priscilla and we all need to be on that band wagon.... Think about it ladies, we are told to see the gyn at 20 and have to begin having mammograms then too....what's the difference - we're still looking for early cancer signs. lori higgins lori_higgins2003@...> wrote: they should start to have it at early age than wait until 40's or 50's. if they have family history of colon cancer or something having problem with bowels, they better start it before too late. I didnt know I had colon cancer before that. doctor at mental health wanted to have blood test from me. he got result of blood test and it was alot of lows in blood. He wanted me to see my own doctor so he also wanted me to have blood test. when i see him, he asked me if i had blood in stomach, I said I dont know so he referal me to see gasterologist. the gasterologist explained me about colonscopsy and I asked her questions about it. I never had it before. on that day I had first colonscopsy, she found tumor 6-7cm and called surgeon to talk to my parents. I had to stay in hosptial. I had surgery next day. they gave me blood transfusion. I stayed there one week and two days. i am sorry it is so long. Lori Higgins --- flipper759@... wrote: > When Phil was in for his ENDOSCOPY there were 2 > medical students observing. > They had had colonoscopies. I commented that they > were young and that it was > good they decided to get tested now rather than wait > until 40 or 50. They said > based on what they are learning they can't > understand why cancer screening > doesn't start earlier than middle age. > > Do you suppose the message is FINALLY getting out to > a new generation of > Dr.s and DO's? > Narice > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been > removed] > > __________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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