Breast Cancer Cases Diagnosed in Early Stages
The following staging maps paint a dramatic portrait of the power of a comprehensive, collaborative approach to cancer control that has impacted breast cancer in Michigan. Since 1985, the combined efforts of many partners, including health care providers, retailers, community-based advocates, survivor groups, the media, Michigan's Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program, have helped to promote routine breast cancer screening and to increase access to screening for women ages 40 and older.

This first map shows the situation regarding early stage breast cancer diagnosed across Michigan between 1985 and 1987, with different colors representing the proportion of breast cancer cases in these counties that were diagnosed at an early stage.

Ideally, this map should show as much blue as possible, which would mean that most counties had 56 percent or more of breast cancers diagnosed at an early stage when the disease is most treatable. Likewise, there should be as little yellow as possible, meaning that very few counties had 39 percent or fewer of their breast cancers were diagnosed in an early stage.

But, notice that this picture is not ideal. The map shows only a relatively few blue counties.

Now, note the change in Michigan 10 years later (1995-1997), following a decade of public and private partners collaborating to educate women and their providers about breast cancer, to improve the quality of early detection and treatment, and to extend access to early detection services to indigent populations.

In this later map, most Michigan counties are now depicted in blue, meaning that the majority of new breast cancers in these counties are being diagnosed at an early stage, affording these women the best chance of long-term survival.

But, blue begins at 56 percent, and this is still quite low in terms of the proportion of cases diagnosed. More work is needed.

Currently, Michigan's Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program serves about 20,000 women per year. Yet, according to census data, another 150,000 Michigan women (ages 40-64) are eligible to participate in the program. More efforts are required to:

• Educate women about the available services;
• Find funding sources to pay for breast cancer treatment, if needed; and
• Ensure that Medicare recipients who are no longer eligible for BCCCP are able to access appropriate preventive health services, such as breast cancer screening.
  

Colorectal Cancer Cases Diagnosed in Early Stages
Now, look at the comparable state maps for early stage colorectal cancer.

This first map shows the situation regarding early stage colorectal cancer diagnosed across Michigan between 1985 and 1987. Again, more blue and less yellow is ideal, meaning most of these cancers are being diagnosed at an early stage. However, the map shows that most Michigan counties had 39 percent or fewer of their colorectal cancer cases diagnosed at an early stage.

This map shows the situation 10 years later in the mid- to late-1990s. Notice that despite some improvement, this later map does not show the same dramatic shift that was seen in the breast cancer diagnosis maps. Not much progress has been made in colorectal cancer diagnosis during the same decade. By 1997, there were still very few Michigan counties with the majority of their colorectal cancer cases diagnosed while at an early stage.

Yet, with equal resources devoted to comprehensively addressing colorectal cancer, Michigan could paint this map as blue as the one showing breast cancer staging improvements in the late 1990s.

last updated: 10/24/04

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