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LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's fight against cancer has gotten a boost from a $3.75 million grant awarded to the University of Kentucky Rural Cancer Prevention Center.
The grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will promote colorectal cancer screening in central Appalachia, the Lexington Herald-Leader (http://bit.ly/1mFIOM7) reported.
Kentucky has the nation's highest rates of cancer incidence and death, and more people from Appalachian Kentucky die from colorectal cancer than those in the state's other regions.
Dr. Richard Crosby, director of the UK center, said Thursday that the focus on colorectal cancer came from a community advisory board that includes relatives of cancer survivors and health care professionals.
"This is where we need to be focusing our attention," Crosby said, citing the responses from the community representatives.
Sherry Payne, a colon cancer survivor and a member of the center's advisory board, said she's grateful for the project.
"While under treatment, I saw too many colon cancer patients passing away when they could have avoided late-stage cancer if they had participated in cancer screenings," Payne said.
This is the center's second five-year round of competitive federal funding. The first five years of the project focused on cervical cancer prevention.
The UK prevention center is one of 26 CDC-financed Prevention Research Centers in the country
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Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com
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