THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF RADIOLOGY and several colorectal cancer care advocacy groups urged Congress to pass the CT Colonography Screening for Colorectal Cancer Act, which would provide Medicare coverage for seniors who choose those screening exams.
“A third of those who should be screened for colorectal cancer can’t have or won’t get a colonoscopy. CT colonography increases screening rates where offered. Medicare coverage would provide seniors with insured access to an exam that may appeal to them. This would jump-start screening, catch more cancers early and saves more lives,” said Eric Hargis, CEO of Colon Cancer Alliance. Other advocacy groups included the Prevent Cancer Foundation, Chris4Life Colon Cancer Foundation, the Colon Cancer Coalition, and Fight Colorectal Cancer.
Several major insurers cover screening with virtual colonoscopy, and more than 20 states require insurers to cover these exams. However, Medicare does not cover beneficiaries for CT colonography.
In recent draft recommendations, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force named virtual colonoscopy an alternative screening exam; the task force did not grade specific screening exams. The American Cancer Society strongly supported CT colonography in its comments to the task force on those draft recommendations. The ACR has urged the task force to reclassify CT colonography as a recommended screening exam.
THE TISCH CANCER INSTITUTE at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and CTI BioPharma Corp. established a $1.5 million research endowment fund, the CTI BioPharma International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, for international collaboration in translational research in hematology and immunobiology.
The fellowship and endowment will provide seed funding to young physician researchers. Mount Sinai will receive endowment funding over three years to identify and select research projects from medical researchers currently working at international institutions based outside the U.S.
