© Oxford University Press 2006.
NEWS |
Control Plans Help States Fight Cancer Locally
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In 1999, only six states had a blueprint to reduce the cancer burden in their regions by improving primary prevention, early detection, and the quality of treatment. By this summer, the District of Columbia, several tribal organizations, and every state except Oklahoma and Alaska had approved their own comprehensive cancer control plan.
These documents are as diverse as the areas they represent. Some have independent funding and are already being implemented. Delaware, for example, has established a fund that pays for cancer treatment for residents who can't, even though its plan is relatively new. Others plans are, at this point, little more than elaborate to-do lists that have not been acted upon.
What the control plans have in common is that they ask their citizens—everyone from the schoolhouse nutritionist and rural physician to local businesses and priority-setting state legislators—to participate in a collective push against cancer.
These plans represent a
Collaborative Planning
Challenges to Implementation
A Funding Focus