Cardinal Health Expands Solutions to Reduce Missed Cancer Screenings

Cardinal Health announced its cancer screening offerings from FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas Corporation and Polymedco that can be done either outside of a doctor’s office or with less invasive procedures can help combat the increase in cancer-related deaths due to late-stage diagnoses¹ from pandemic-related delays.
 
“The pandemic has changed the landscape of traditional diagnostic methods and is driving the healthcare industry to evaluate screenings differently,” added Chris Kerski, general manager and senior vice president of Cardinal Health Laboratory Products. “We’re adding new testing solutions to our portfolio to reduce barriers to screening and support patient-led cancer screenings.”
 
Colon Cancer
According to a report in JAMA Oncology², nearly 10 million cancer screenings for breast, colon and prostate cancer were missed in the U.S. since the pandemic began. Researchers recently reported a more than 40% decline in colon cancer diagnoses alone during the pandemic, a statistic that points to missed screenings, not fewer cases³. 
 
“A missed screening increases the likelihood of a late-stage cancer diagnosis, which is associated with poor prognosis,” said Nicholas Sullivan, Ph.D., a senior product manager at Cardinal Health Laboratory Products with a background in cancer biology and clinical laboratory medicine. “This high number of missed screenings during the pandemic has the potential to impact cancer patient outcomes for years.”
 
During the pandemic, some health systems and health plans began proactively mailing screening collection kits to patients, rather than waiting for patients to come in for a routine visit or colonoscopy⁴. Cardinal Health works with Polymedco to offer OC-AutoFIT, which detects small amounts of blood in stool—an early indication of colon cancer⁵. Different than a colonoscopy, patients don’t have to prep in advance of the test and can do the stool specimen collection at home.
 
Liver Cancer
Liver cancer is one of the top-three leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide⁶ accounting for more than 700,000 deaths each year⁷.
 
In November 2020, Cardinal Health became the first distributor of Fujifilm’s innovative solution, the µTASWako i30 Immunoanalyzer System testing for liver biomarkers AFP-L3 and DCP using a simple blood draw. These biomarkers aid in the risk assessment of patients with chronic liver disease for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer⁸.
 
HCC surveillance is critical for those at-risk for liver cancer given its lethality. A recent study⁹ reported that liver cancer surveillance dramatically declined during the pandemic and that “a delay of just a few months in HCC surveillance may be catastrophic for patients, given that the doubling time for HCC tumor volume is 85.7 days.” Only 20 percent of those patients at risk of developing liver cancer receive surveillance¹⁰. 
 
Cardinal Health now offers Fujifilm’s automated solution to enhance clinical lab customers’ liver surveillance cancer programs.
 
Cancer Screening Access
As a trusted advisor to the clinical laboratory market, Cardinal Health advocates for the important role diagnostic testing plays in improving healthcare.
 
“These critical expansions of our cancer screening offerings, coupled with our robust anatomic pathology and laboratory kitting services, underscore our commitment to making healthcare more accessible for patients. We must stay vigilant in preventative care through the utilization of easy-to-access screening tools and draw more awareness to the secondary impacts of the pandemic,” said Kerski.

References
¹ Goodman, Alice. The ASCO Post. March 10, 2021. Fallout From COVID-19: Decline in Cancer Screening and Increase in Cancer-Related Deaths.
² Ronald C. Chen, MD, MPH1; Kevin Haynes, PharmD, MSCE2; Simo Du, MBBS, MHS2; et al John Barron, PharmD2; Aaron J. Katz, PharmD, PhD3. JAMA Oncology. April 29, 2021; 1;7(6):878-884. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.0884. Association of Cancer Screening Deficit in the United States With the COVID-19 Pandemic.
³ Murez, Cara. WebMD. October 4, 2021. Colon Cancer Diagnoses Fell 40% in Pandemic, and That’s Not Good News.
⁴ Mary Chris Jaklevic, MSJ. JAMA Network. December 23, 2020. Pandemic Spotlights In-home Colon Cancer Screening Tests.
⁵ American Cancer Society. June 29, 2020. Colorectal Cancer Signs and Symptoms.
⁶ World Health Organization. September 21, 2021. Cancer Fact Sheet.
⁷ American Cancer Society. January 12, 2021. Key Statistics About Liver Cancer.
⁸ Mayo Clinic. May 18, 2021. Liver Cancer.
⁹ Hidenori Toyoda,Daniel Q. Huang,Michael H. Le,Mindie H. Nguyen. Hepatology Communications. July 17, 2020. Liver Care and Surveillance: The Global Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
¹⁰ Neehar D Parikh, Anand S Mehta, Amit G Singal, Timothy Block, Jorge A. Marrero, Anna SF Lok. National Library of Medicine. June 1, 2021. Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.