ASHLAND — Health experts want to talk about your colons.
A panel of area experts will meet at University Hospitals Samaritan on Main Street to answer questions from the public on March 18, according to a press release issued Wednesday from the Ashland County Health and Wellness Target Action Group (TAG).
Jenna Gerwig, the chairwoman of the TAG and the health department’s director of nursing, said the county’s Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) from 2023-2025 identified colorectal cancer incidence rates “as an area of concern.”
“We want to give Ashland County residents an opportunity to ask medical professionals questions, hear from a cancer survivor, and learn about services available to residents undergoing cancer treatment,” Gerwig said.
Event Details
- When: Tuesday, March 18
- Time: 6 p.m.
- Where: UH Samaritan, 663 East Main St., Ashland
Understanding the problem
Ashland County recorded 340 new cancer cases from 2016 to 2020. Colon and rectum cancer made up 10.5% of those diagnoses. That’s behind breast, prostate and lung and bronchus cancer diagnoses.
But colon and rectum cancer accounted for 13.5% of all cancer deaths within the same time period, behind only lung and bronchus cancer.
The grimmest data point, however, is perhaps the fact that colon and rectum cancer incidence and mortality rates surpass state and national trends.
In other words, more people are getting it and more people are dying from it in Ashland County compared to other areas of Ohio and the U.S.
Patients are also getting younger.
One in five cases of colorectal cancers diagnosed today occurs in people younger than age 55. In 1995, that rate sat at one in 10, according to a study published by the American Cancer Society.
That's why, in 2021, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force issued new recommendations stating the age for colorectal cancer screening should be 45 instead of 50.
Yet only 48% of Ashland County’s residents who are between the ages of 50 and 75 have screened for it, according to state data. That's roughly 22 percentage points behind the rates of both Ohio and the U.S.
A survey
County health professionals circulated a survey last year that asked residents aged 45 and older if they'd ever had a colorectal cancer screen, either by stool sample or colonoscopy.
Between June and September of 2024, the survey garnered 288 responses from people aged 45 and older, a segment of county's population that amounts to 24,019 people, according to census figures.
The survey's margin of error is 6%, according to calculations based upon a 95% confidence level. Most industry experts agree an acceptable margin of error falls between 4% and 8%.
Of those who responded, 78.8% reported having been screened for colorectal cancer. The survey did not ask respondents to report their ethnicity, gender or geographic information, in order to "encourage participation."
But it did ask for their age. Most respondents, 133, were above the age of 65.
The panel
The panel will include:
- Angela Woodward, Executive Director of Ashland County Cancer Assocation
- University Hospitals' Drs. Mehrdad Tavallaee and Megan Sippy
- Christina Spring, Certified Nurse Practitioner with Ashland Mobile Med
The TAG press release stated "other subject matter experts" from OhioHealth and University Hospitals will also be in attendance.
read more about the issue here
Why is colorectal cancer so bad in Ashland County?
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