While the search for better cancer treatments rushes forward in many laboratories, two discoveries that are already proven life-savers are still not reaching all the women that need them.

Mammograms and Pap tests can find breast and cervical cancer early, before any noticeable symptoms, when treatments are most successful. But for women with no health insurance, poor insurance policies, between jobs, or at low income levels, these routine tests cost too much. And the government program currently in place to help these women get these tests on schedule is struggling.

It's estimated that current funding allows only 1 out of 5 needy women who qualify for the nation's free mammogram and Pap test program to get these life-saving tests.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) is currently running and saving lives in all 50 states. But it needs more funding to serve all eligible women.

“Each [state] program contracts with health care service providers,” said Lori Belle-Isle, regional planning director for health promotions at the American Cancer Society. “The service is free to the patients.” With more than 21,000 service sites throughout the United States, women who are subsequently diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through the program are eligible for treatment through Medicaid under the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act, a law the Society helped pass.

Joy Fox, a breast cancer survivor from Salem, Oregon, wants to see widespread advertising for the free mammograms provided by the CDC program, in grocery stores, public restrooms, and many more places. At age 53 she was working, but did not have health insurance, when a free mammogram from the NBCCEDP program found her breast cancer.

Fox is now in treatment and says her prospects for recovery are good, but wishes she'd learned about the free mammogram program sooner. Without health insurance, she skipped regular mammograms, and she says many other women without insurance do the same.

"One in seven women are diagnosed with breast cancer and in light of those statistics, breast cancer patients cannot ask ‘why me,’ but ‘why not me?’," said Fox. She added, "All women need to get screened. Even if you don’t have insurance, there are alternative routes to explore to get medical coverage.”

In addition to saving lives, the program also helps reduce the high medical costs of treating late-stage cancer. For instance, when a Pap test indicates a woman has precancerous cervical changes, it costs less than $2,000 to treat her and completely prevent the cancer. But if the changes progress to become cancer, treatment can cost as much as $30,000 – as well as cause undue suffering to the patient and her loved ones.

If properly funded, NBCCEDP could make an enormous difference in the fight against cancer. “The current funding does not cover all eligible women,” said Eve Nagler, the Society’s director of special populations. “The Society recently advocated for and secured nearly $9 million in additional funding for the program at the federal level, but so much more is still needed.” Ultimately, the Society is working to secure an additional $45 million in federal funding for NBCCEDP, which would bring the program’s total budget to $250 million – allowing 130,000 more women to be reached with lifesaving testing each year.

The Society’s nonpartisan, nonprofit sister advocacy organization, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action NetworkSM (ACS CAN) is leading a drive to make sure that all women who are eligible for this program get the tests they need.

Learn more or get involved at www.acscan.org.

Find a CDC cancer testing program near you online or by calling 1-888-842-6355 (Option 7).

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