HARTFORD, CT — Earlier this morning, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) volunteers gathered at the Connecticut Capitol as a part of their annual Cancer Action Day advocating for legislative proposals that aim to address the needs of patients across the cancer continuum. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) gives people impacted by cancer a powerful voice with lawmakers by holding an annual Cancer Action Day.
Progress in improving cancer outcomes increasingly involves the use of precision medicine, which uses information about a person’s own genes or proteins to prevent, diagnose or treat diseases like cancer.
With this in mind, the volunteers asked lawmakers to improve private insurance coverage of comprehensive cutting edge biomarker testing across all communities. Last year, the legislature acted to ensure such access for Medicaid enrollees, but private insurance companies were not included.
Because insurance coverage of biomarker testing has not kept pace with the speed of medical innovation, communities in Connecticut are facing significant disparities in who is benefiting from biomarker testing and biomarker-informed treatment.
“Biomarker testing is essential to high-quality, personalized care for many conditions and can be a real gamechanger for many patients, but unfortunately, not everyone who can benefit from biomarker testing is getting it,” said Bryte Johnson, ACS CAN Connecticut director of government relations.
“There are significant disparities in health outcomes for Connecticut patients by race, income, and insurance type. Without addressing barriers to care, breakthroughs in personalized treatments could increase these disparities in health outcomes. Already, 20 states have passed similar laws to increase access to comprehensive biomarker testing—and it’s time for Connecticut to do the same,” he continued.
Access to biomarker testing opens the door to personalized medicine, including targeted therapy – in fact, 60% of oncology drugs launched in the past five years require or recommend biomarker testing prior to use. While most current applications are in cancer, biomarker testing is becoming increasingly important to the treatment of other disease areas including arthritis, other autoimmune conditions, organ and tissue transplant, rare diseases, and preeclampsia.
“Expanding access to biomarker testing will help more people in Connecticut get the right treatment at the right time and avoid therapies that are unnecessary or ineffective for their condition – not only for cancer patients, but for a wide variety of serious diseases,” continued Johnson.
“Over 10,000 Nutmeggers will hear the words, ‘you have cancer’ this year. ACS CAN hopes that lawmakers will listen to the many stories shared today and take important steps toward ensuring that a cancer diagnosis does not create undue hardship for anyone, in any of our communities,” he concluded.
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About ACS CAN
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) makes cancer a top priority for policymakers at every level of government. ACS CAN empowers volunteers across the country to make their voices heard to influence evidence-based public policy change that improves the lives of people with cancer and their families. We believe everyone should have a fair and just opportunity to prevent, find, treat, and survive cancer. Since 2001, as the American Cancer Society’s nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate, ACS CAN has successfully advocated for billions of dollars in cancer research funding, expanded access to quality affordable health care, and advanced proven tobacco control measures. We’re more determined than ever to stand together with our volunteers to end cancer as we know it, for everyone. Join the fight by visiting www.fightcancer.org.
Volunteer advocates, including cancer survivors, patients,