About the Initiative
Representatives from the Great Lakes Cancer Institute at Michigan State University (GLCI) - Bay City, Flint, Lansing, and Lapeer, the GLCI director of Community Outreach and Education, the American Cancer Society, Great Lakes Division, Inc. (ACS), and Beckman Coulter Inc. collaborated to develop a single screening education message that covered the majority of a 22-county area in mid-Michigan by way of radio and newspaper advertising and television and newspaper features.

GLCI administrative offices in Flint answered all calls for kits and seminar registration and assembled and mailed all FOBT packets, including kits, instructions, and postage-paid, business-reply envelopes addressed to the respective medical centers. Data was collected and maintained on each caller and each recipient that returned an FOBT.

Beckman Coulter donated the new immunochemical FOBTs and the supplies required to process the completed FOBTs. The Beckman Coulter national spokesperson/educator for FOBT and colorectal cancer screening flew in from the California office to present at each seminar.

The individual facility laboratories processed the FOBTs and colorectal cancer screening and reported the results to the GLCI Office of Community Outreach and Education. Results were documented, recorded and sent to participants and the participants’ primary care doctor with the participant’s permission.

ACS participated at three of the four seminars and made follow-up calls week eight of the program to every caller that had received an FOBT packet, but had not yet returned a completed FOBT.

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Impetus for the Collaboration
In prior years, experience in colorectal cancer screening by individual network affiliates was inconsistent and resulted in an FOBT return rate of approximately 27.8 percent cumulatively.

As suggested by studies at the University of Minnesota, Brown University, and the United States Prevention Task Force Service, personal contact, education instruction, and reminder follow-up all increase compliance in community-based, direct mail colorectal cancer screening programs using FOBTs.

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Results

• 444 people called to request a free FOBT kit by mail or to attend a seminar and receive an FOBT.
• Personal contact (by phone, in person, or both) was made with 444 people in mid-Michigan regarding the screening process, FOBT instructions, and the importance of screening for colorectal cancer in order to prevent and cure this type of cancer in our communities.
• 61.1 percent of the people that requested an FOBT completed and returned it.
• Identified 12 individuals that tested positive for fecal occult blood. All are being personally followed and either have already had a colonoscopy or have one scheduled.

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Lessons Learned
People in communities without a physician and without medical insurance need a mechanism for cancer screening, prevention testing, and follow-up. Therefore, project collaborators will attempt to gain commitments from gastroenterology groups in each major market area to provide a specific number of colonoscopies per group for individuals that test positive on an FOBT and do not have health insurance to cover the cost of their follow-up testing and care.

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Collaborating Partners

• Great Lakes Cancer Institute at Michigan State University
• Bay Regional Medical Center – Bay City
• McLaren Regional Medical Center – Flint
• Ingham Regional Medical Center – Lansing
• Lapeer Regional Medical Center – Lapeer
• American Cancer Society, Great Lakes Division, Inc. – Lansing Area and Flint Area
• Beckman Coulter Inc.

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MCC Recognition
"Network-Wide Colorectal Cancer Screening and Education in Mid-Michigan Project” received the Michigan Cancer Consortium’s 2006 Spirit of Collaboration Award. The annual award is presented to member organizations that have done outstanding collaborative work to significantly move comprehensive cancer control activities forward in Michigan.

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Learn More
For more information about this project, please contact Ray Demers, MD, MPH, Great Lakes Cancer Institute at Michigan State University, at RayD@Mclaren.org.

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last updated: 04/18/07

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