Southern states need to improve colorectal cancer screening rates, study suggests

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal Cancer, researchers have found that if Louisiana had the same risk factors, screening uptake, and survival rates for colorectal cancer as New Jersey, the incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer would decline below that of New Jersey's.

Louisiana has one of the highest incidence and mortality rates of colon cancer in the United States.

For the study, researchers sought to determine how disparities in colorectal cancer rates between Louisiana and New Jersey would be impacted if the differences in risk factors, screening uptake, and colorectal cancer-specific survival rates between the states were non-existent.

Results showed that increasing screening rates had the potential to decrease incidence rates of colorectal cancer by 15.2% in Louisiana. When researchers eliminated differences in the prevalence of obesity and smoking between the two states, the incidence of colorectal cancer decreased by 3.5% and mortality dropped by 3.0%.

"The disparities in CRC incidence and mortality rates between Louisiana and New Jersey could be eliminated if Louisiana could attain New Jersey's levels of risk factors, screening, and survival, the authors concluded. "Priority should be given to enabling Southern states to improve screening and survival rates."