Catching Colorectal Cancer 

Grant Allows Enloe to Offer Free Testing

Colonoscopies save lives because they allow physicians to “see” inside a patient’s large intestine to spot possible cancers or other conditions — even if the patient has no symptoms.

Yet, some people simply do not want to have a colonoscopy, and others choose not to have them. So, if there’s an easier way to screen a patient for cancer, wouldn’t it be a great option?

Fortunately, there are other proven screening options available. These alternative approaches allow patients to collect small samples of fecal matter, safely seal them with a preservative and mail them to a laboratory for analysis. The lab provides results directly to the patient and doctor, and if the test is negative, then the patient can schedule a repeat screening in one to three years, depending on the test performed.

Enloe Health plays a major role in providing these tests to patients. Enloe applied for — and in May 2024 received — the Colorectal FOCUS Grant from Exact Sciences, a leading provider of cancer screening and diagnostic tests. The $50,000 grant’s purpose is simple: to screen patients who aren’t up to date on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for colorectal screenings. It also helps cover out-of-pocket costs for patients who receive colonoscopies following positive screenings, said Gabrielle Kasza, Enloe’s Healthy Here Coordinator.

Enloe has distributed 26 screening kits to patients out of the 197 who had indicated by mid-January that they’re eligible, after taking a four-question survey showing average risk. Each of those candidates could receive either a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) kit or a Cologuard kit.

Fourteen have returned the kits. Six patients have received or are scheduled for colonoscopies. Screening 1,000 patients is Enloe’s goal — a critical number because Butte County has the highest rate of colorectal cancer, 36.4 cases per 100,000 population, in the state. A lack of primary-care providers in the region worsens the problem, Kasza said.

A ‘Simple’ Process

Oroville resident Julie Casimir benefited from the screening. She is a cancer survivor, but when she noticed MyChart urging her to be screened for colorectal cancer, she called Enloe Health Community Health to learn more. “I wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t seen the notice,” explained Casimir, who had been previously diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer.

The process for starting the screening “was pretty simple,” she said. “You call and fill out a little form. They called me within a week and set up a date for me to pick up the kit and explained the directions. I did everything they said and mailed it through UPS.”

Casimir said the results “were pretty quick” and she received a call from Community Health, which she appreciated. Unfortunately, the screening test was positive, which indicated she needed to proceed to the second screening step — a colonoscopy. She had one in February.

“When you survive cancer, you assume all those tests would’ve seen everything, but that wasn’t the case,” she said. “I’m glad I called Community Health.”

“This project was inspired by our FIT/flu clinic, where — in addition to offering free flu vaccinations — the Enloe Health Regional Cancer Center and our staff provided colon cancer screening education” to those who qualified by age, Kasza said.

“The most concerning challenge we had in that pilot program was that some positive screens that should have led to colonoscopies did not, primarily because of the cost burden,” she said. “This screening opportunity provides our community with another way to gain access to care before it leads to a potential late-stage diagnosis.”