Pamela P. DiNapoli, PhD, RN, CNL is the executive director of NH Nurses Association.
Unity in politics, we hear all too often, is something more honored in the breach than the observance. But it does happen, and it should be celebrated when it occurs, especially if it helps to save lives.
Congress has a number of urgent priorities, but the fact remains that cancer will take the lives of more than 600,000 Americans this year alone. Recently, I am happy to note, the entire New Hampshire delegation to Congress signed the Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Act, legislation that will ultimately enable millions of Americans to detect cancer in its earlier, more treatable stages.
As an exemplar of unity in politics, it does not get much better than this.
As registered nurses, patient care and interactions place us in the front row to the emotional and physical costs cancer patients, and their families, endure. As the executive director of New Hampshire Nurses Association, I’m happy to see that our Congressional delegation took notice and acted with patients in mind.
Here in New Hampshire, cancer is the leading cause of death. There were an estimated 2,800 deaths from cancer this year with an estimated 9,430 more of our citizens diagnosed with the disease this year alone. Cancer remains the second leading cause of death in America and early diagnosis and treatment are our best weapons in the battle against cancer.
There is no doubt that the right thing to do is to take advantage of all available cancer screenings. Tests like pap smears, mammograms and colonoscopies save lives with early diagnosis. Identification of cancer in its earliest stages yields a five-year survival rate of 89%.
Sadly, there is a lack of early screening for most cancer types. At present, we only have the ability to test for five of the more than 100 common cancers. There is hope on the horizon. Multi-cancer early detection (“MCED”) technologies, currently in front of the Food and Drug Administration, will allow healthcare professionals to test for dozens of cancer types with a single cancer. The Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act, supported by our New Hampshire delegation, would create a pathway for Medicare to cover these potentially lifesaving innovations upon approval by the FDA with a single screening.
President Joe Biden announced a challenge to his own administration and those that follow to reduce the cancer mortality rate by 50% over the next quarter century. He dubbed this the “Cancer Moonshot,” something akin to the challenge President John F. Kennedy posed to Americans that resulted in our landing on the moon. A crucial component of this moonshot, President Biden noted, would be “a call to action for cancer screening and early detection.” Additionally, President Biden spoke to the promise of new multicancer technologies.
As the president then exclaimed, “When we work together in America, there is nothing — nothing beyond our capacity. Nothing. So, let’s show the world what’s possible. Let’s show the world that we’re committed.”
Thank you to our New Hampshire delegation for support of this important legislation and the promise for advances in early detection and treatment leading to increased survival rates.