Colon cancer focus in popular media demonstrates progress in the fight to increase awareness
Photo by Angelrravelor
Seventies icon Farrah Fawcett was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital this week inciting a flurry of news stories about the actress’s three year battle with anal cancer. Television news outlets, online sources, and entertainment shows are also reporting that A Wing and A Prayer which documents Fawcett’s battle with anal cancer will be aired on NBC, although an air date has not been set. “NBC is as courageous as Farrah for airing the subject matter that she is filming in prime time,” said Craig Nevius, the documentary’s producer, in a statement released to Access Hollywood.
NBC’s decision to air the documentary reflects continued progress in the battle to promote colorectal cancer awareness and education. In 2000, Katie Couric’s colonoscopy on the Today show was considered groundbreaking for it’s no holds barred coverage of the procedure. The social impact was noticeable to both media and medical communities. In an issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine released in July 2003, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan Health System and the University of Iowa reported that “colonoscopy rates nationwide jumped more than 20 percent in the days and months after Couric’s on-air test…” The researchers referred to the impact as “the “Katie Couric Effect.”
But more recent coverage of colon cancer related issues reflects significant progress in the move to educate younger Americans. Just weeks ago, Bruce Jenner underwent a colonoscopy on Keeping Up with the Kardashians a show about the trendy upscale life of 20-something hipster Kim Kardashian. The reality show is a hit on the E! network’s prime time line-up and the episode featuring Jenner’s colonscopy was heavily promoted prior to it’s airing. The episode features Kim making a decision to have uncomfortable but routine LASIK eye surgery, while Bruce, her stepfather, battles similar issues in his decision to have a colonoscopy. Footage of Jenner’s routine prep is handled with humor, as he mixes and drinks his prescribed solution and then makes repeated urgent trips to the bathroom during which he yells for more toilet paper. But educational elements are evident as well. After Jenner’s pre-teen daughters become confused and afraid, he sits them down and explains the necessity of the screening procedure.
The blunt coverage of medical issues on shows like Kardashian, and the popularity of medical entertainment shows such as ER and Grey’s Anatomy have created a need for medical watchdogs to ensure accurate handling of relevant issues and to see that important medical topics receive coverage. In a recent New York Times article, writer Pam Belluck interviews Sandra de Castro Buffington, director of a program called Hollywood, Health and Society which receives funding from federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control to help directors and producers feature important health issues with accuracy. Through the program “doctors urge medical show writers to highlight certain diseases or issues” says de Castro Buffington. “We coach our experts in telling writers real stories of real people.” The organization has encouraged writers of the medical drama House to include an episode about Chlamydia, and for producers of both ER and Grey’s Anatomy to produce episodes about patients with the BRCA gene mutation which predisposes some women to cancer.
Coverage of colon cancer, anal cancer and other sensitive topics is still lagging but progress is being made. Colon Cancer Coalition founder and president Kristin Tabor sees the change. “Five years ago when we began promoting the Get Your Rear in Gear 5k, we had several naysayers and frowns about using the words colon, rectal, rectum and colonoscopies. Today, people are talking about colorectal cancer at the dinner table. Imagine if we could get the Hollywood star power to “get their rears in gear” and help us save at least 25,000 to 30,000 lives annually.” Kristin may soon get her wish. During the recent airing of Stand Up To Cancer on all three major networks, Homer Simpson had his first colonoscopy. Basketball great Charles Barkley included footage of his procedure on SU2C After Hours. When Farrah Fawcett’s documentary airs, maybe Katie Couric can rest on her laurels and let the Fawcett effect set in; helping all Americans get comfortable with screening for colon, rectal and anal cancers.
