Quest Diagnostics Campaign Challenges Colorectal Cancer Screening ...( 'Do You Have the Guts?' aims to...)

'Do You Have the Guts?' aims to reach five million in five years

MADISON, N.J., March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), the nation's leading provider of diagnostic testing information and services, today announced the launch of a novel campaign designed to help increase compliance with take-home colorectal screening tests. Titled "It's Time to Challenge Colon Cancer: Do You Have the Guts?," the campaign aims to break down barriers to compliance with fecal occult blood tests and increase screening with these convenient take-home screening tools. The goal of the new campaign is to have five million people complete their annual testing over the next five years.

The value of regular health screening is well-recognized in the U.S. Nearly 60 percent of women have an annual Pap test(1) and as many as 79 percent of men receive PSA screening every year for prostate cancer.(2) Yet in one randomized clinical study, only 31% of patients (n=1,818) completed an at-home colorectal screening test.(3) Sadly, despite the availability of these convenient and effective diagnostic tests, nearly 150,000 men and women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year, and one third of these patients will ultimately succumb to the disease.(4) When found early and treated, the five-year relative survival rate for colon cancer is 90%(5), yet less than 40 percent of colorectal cancers are found early.(6)

"We are launching this campaign at the end of Colon Cancer Awareness Month because we want people to remember that this disease strikes every day of every month," said Stephen C. Suffin, M.D., corporate clinical pathologist and interim chief laboratory officer, Quest Diagnostics. "As a worldw
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