February 24, 2006
Section: B
Page: 5B
Cancer initiative targets Camden
SHAWN RHEA
Courier-Post
Effort seeks to cut death rate in city
Courier-Post Staff CAMDEN
Area health-care providers, community leaders and representatives from the American Cancer Society have formed a volunteer partnership designed to reduce cancer death rates among city residents and employees.
The Camden City Cancer Initiative is one of at least eight similar partnerships being launched across New Jersey, said Sheila Williamson-Carson, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society.
“What we know is catastrophic illness like cancer disproportionately affects minorities and lower-income residents, so we’re launching this initiative in areas with high minority populations,” she said.
According to state statistics, men in Camden City have a 20 percent higher rate of cancer than men countywide, and women in the city have a 58 percent higher rate of invasive cervical cancer than women countywide.
The Camden effort will bring together health-care providers such as Lourdes Health System, Cooper University Hospital and Virtua Health, along with health outreach workers, city government officials and cancer awareness advocates.
They intend to increase early screening and treatment rates among minorities, Williamson-Carson said. They will work to address treatment disparities among the uninsured.
They also will focus more attention on employer screenings by organizing workplace cancer education and screening referral efforts, she said.
“A lot of insured people aren’t getting the screenings they need,” Williamson-Carson said. “Some people aren’t getting the proper recommendations from their doctors, some have problems getting time off from work to get screened and some just aren’t aware that they need to be screened.”
Activist and breast cancer survivor Carmen Martinez of Camden said she hopes the initiative will reach women who are not going for screenings, especially those who are afraid to seek care because they fear deportation.
The effort won’t create new screening and treatment services but should improve access to existing ones and increase outreach to Camden residents and employees, said Scot McCray, director of Urban Health Initiatives at Cooper.
“There’s always room for a more comprehensive effort,” McCray said. “What happens many times is that the efforts by an (individual) organization are very effective, but we don’t maximize our outcomes by working together.”
The initiative also will work to increase funding of state-sponsored cancer treatment and smoking cessation programs, he said.
While the initiative’s goals are in place, it’s too soon to say how the partnership will reach them, acknowledged Ellen Feinstein, vice president of oncology at Virtua and an initiative participant.
“(What we’ll do) remains to be seen, but obviously there’s a significant burden of cancer on the state,” Feinstein said. “There are only two states ahead of us in terms of incidents, and Camden City is among the top 10 cancer incident sites in the state. Certainly getting more people screened is an important step, because the earlier it detected, the better the outcome.”
Reach Shawn Rhea at (856) 486-2475 or srhea@courierpostonline.com
MORE INFOR- MATION
For more information about cancer prevention efforts and resources, call the American Cancer Society at (856) 616-1650 or go to www. cancer.org.
MORE INFORMATION
Call Plyshette Wiggins at (800) 227-2345 or e-mail her at plyshette.wiggins@cancer.org for information on the Camden City Cancer Initiative.
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