Detecting Cancer Early… Really Early
Early detection of cancer is the best way to beat it. Mammography, colonoscopy, PSA are screening tools that are detecting cancer early and saving lives as a result.
What if a small blood draw could detect cancer before any lumps, spots or shadows showed up on a screening and before symptoms ever surfaced in a patient? We’re closer than you might think to that reality. Today, clinical trials are underway on a revolutionary new method of cancer screening that can detect multiple forms of cancer in the earliest stages. They are called multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests. MCED tests unite advances in genomic science and computing power to find cancer before it spreads throughout the body. All through a simple blood draw.
Medicare does not automatically cover innovative testing methods such as MCED. In fact, Medicare covers routine screening for only five types of cancer—breast, cervical, colorectal, prostate, and lung cancer (in limited instances). Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate to assure Medicare coverage of multi-cancer screening once these tests receive final approval by the FDA. The Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act recognizes that as science moves forward so must health care policy. The measure creates the authority for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to evaluate and cover blood-based multi-cancer early detection tests and future test methods, such as urine or hair tests, once approved by the FDA. This legislation paves the way for timely access to innovative cancer screening tools that will complement existing screening methods. The Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act represents a new chapter for early detection and could forever alter the toll cancer takes.
Patients win when health care policy embraces innovation and physicians can apply medical breakthroughs to a treatment plan. Join with Patients and Providers United to keep patients and providers, not bureaucratic roadblocks, at the center of medical decision making.