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alliance-blog

Colorectal cancer awareness and action

Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the United States and the second leading cause of death from cancer. It affects people in all racial and ethnic groups and is most often found in people age 50 and older. In Washington, colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in our state. In 2011, over 1,000 Washington residents died of this disease. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

If everyone age 50 and older was screened regularly, 6 out of 10 deaths from colorectal cancer could be prevented. Understanding how Washington is doing as a state when it comes to colorectal cancer screenings can help us make progress toward this goal. In the Community Checkup, we track how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go with making colorectal cancer screening commonplace in our state. Check the latest results at www.wacommunitycheckup.org. We’ve found, in general, that we’re not doing as well as we should be.

The health care community is demonstrating its commitment to better screening for colorectal cancer through 80% by 2018 Colon Cancer Screening Challenge, a National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (NCCRT) initiative in which organizations sign a pledge to work toward the shared goal of reaching 80% of adults aged 50 and older to be screened for colorectal cancer by 2018.

Together, we can improve colorectal cancer screening rates and help make progress toward beating colorectal cancer.

Posted in: Community Checkup

Published: March 30, 2016

About Washington Health Alliance

The Washington Health Alliance is a place where stakeholders work collaboratively to transform Washington state’s health care system for the better. The Alliance brings together organizations that share a commitment to drive change in our health care system by offering a forum for critical conversation and aligned efforts by stakeholders: purchasers, providers, health plans, consumers and other health care partners. The Alliance believes strongly in transparency and offers trusted and credible reporting of progress on measures of health care quality and value. The Alliance is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit with more than 185 member organizations. A cornerstone of the Alliance's work is the Community Checkup, a report to the public comparing the performance of medical groups, hospitals and health plans and offering a community-level view on important measures of health care quality (www.wacommunitycheckup.org).

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