The University Health System is working with the Virginia Department of Health and local cancer organizations to develop a cancer control plan, a process which begun in 1998 and is nearing completion.
University Cancer Center nutritionist Jennifer Lucas said the ultimate purpose of the committee is to take further steps toward a long-term goal of eliminating preventable cancers.
"We want to reduce cancer in the state of Virginia," Lucas said.
Elizabeth McGarvey, an assistant professor of psychiatry and member of the Cancer Plan Advisory Committee - the committee that is developing the cancer control plan - said committee members tried to identify all the controllable types of cancer. The committee then looked for sources of funding so it could provide screenings for early detection. The earlier the detection, the greater the patient's chances of recovery are than if the cancer was detected later.
"There is more coordination among the organizations" between health departments,McGarvey said. "We wanted not to be duplicating research, but rather sharing resources for research and prevention."
Diane Cole, an education coordinator at the Cancer Center, said CPAC members came together and looked at other states' plans.
"Then we split into subcommittees according to our area of interest and wrote a section of the plan," Cole said.
The sections of the Cancer Control Plan are prevention, early detection, treatment, rehabilitation and palliation (the treatment of the symptoms that accompany cancer), and surveillance.
McGarvey said such a comprehensive plan was necessary because "there is so much data on what people can do to prevent cancer. The task force wanted to concentrate on what we can really do to help Virginians."
The University Cancer Center already uses parts of the cancer control plan in its overall cancer treatment and prevention strategy, she said.
"Every organization has been extremely cooperative, because everyone's on the same side, and it's not political," she added.
CPAC, now known as the Cancer Plan Action Committee, focuses on promotion of the plan.
"Our original purpose has been accomplished," Cole said. "We are transitioning as a group. We are setting priorities within each section and contacting the organizations most relevant to each section."
Cole said the committee that developed the plan started meeting in 1998 and consists of members from the Virginia Department of Health, the Cancer Information Service, different state medical institutions, the American Cancer Society and other related organizations.
Cole said CPAC looked at the structures of other cancer organizations to get some positive and efficient ideas.
One of the models for the state Cancer Control Plan is the Every Woman's Life-Health Passport, a statewide service begun locally that gives uninsured and underinsured local women free breast and cervical cancer screenings.
McGarvey runs the Passport program in the Richmond area, which has helped women for five years so far.
"It's for women ago 50-64 who are too poor to afford screenings," she said. "Right now it is supported by Centers for Disease Control funding. A grant under review is for $4 million, which would allow us to screen over 8,000 women a year"
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