Cutting-edge colorectal cancer screening now covered
Did you know colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States among cancers that affect both men and women? More than 90% of cases occur in people who are 50 years old or older. More men than women get colon cancer, and 1 or 2 out of every 100 men who are 60 today will develop colon cancer by age 70.
Starting today, people with Medicare who don’t show symptoms of colorectal cancer will have access to the Cologuard™ multi-target stool DNA test, a first-of-its-kind test. It’s being covered more quickly than usual by Medicare through a pilot program run jointly by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Medicare. Medicare and the FDA are working together to get you state-of-the-art treatments faster.
In most cases, colorectal cancer develops from precancerous polyps (abnormal growths) in the colon or rectum. Cologuard™ studies a patient’s stool sample to see if there’s DNA code that suggests either the presence of precancerous polyps or colorectal cancer. This way, your doctors can find these polyps and you can get them removed before they turn into cancer.
Medicare Part B covers the Cologuard™ test once every 3 years for people with Medicare who meet all of these conditions:
- Between 50 and 85 years old
- Show no signs or symptoms of colorectal disease including, but not limited to, lower gastrointestinal pain, blood in stool, positive guaiac fecal occult blood test or fecal immunochemical test, and
- At average risk of developing colorectal cancer—have no personal history of adenomatous polyps, colorectal cancer, or inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis; and have no family history of colorectal cancers or adenomatous polyps, familial adenomatous polyposis, or hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer
Cologuard™ is one of several tools that Medicare covers to detect colorectal cancer. Talk with your doctor about which colorectal cancer screenings you should try.
Story link: http://blog.medicare.gov/2014/10/09/cologuard/
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