State develops comprehensive plan to fight cancer
The 72-page report, called the Tennessee Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan, spawned from a federal initiative about five years ago urging states to develop and implement such plans.
Along with representatives of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute, state government, universities, research institutions, health professions and advocacy groups helped craft the plan.
It includes a number of recommendations and “clearly identifies gaps between Tennessee’s current approach regarding cancer control and where the state should be, areas where the state can improve on what it is currently doing, and specific needs that remain unmet,” the report states.
Keith Gregory, chief operating officer of a cancer clinic in Germantown, said the main objective of the plan is to provide a more effective and unified fight against cancer, which killed 12,518 Tennesseans in 2002, according to the latest statistics from the National Cancer Institute.
Heart disease claimed 16,225 people that year in the state.
“We are trying to get people to work together across the state and eliminate the duplication of efforts and do a better job of focusing those efforts and getting something accomplished,” Gregory told The Commercial Appeal newspaper.
The coalition’s efforts are expected to coincide with the state’s disenrollment of about 225,000 adults from Tennessee’s expanded Medicaid program. State officials have said cuts to TennCare are needed to save costs. Disenrollment notices began going out earlier this month.
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On the Net:
Tennessee Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan: www2.state.tn.us/health/CCCP/