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.