LITTLE ROCK—The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has received a $2.5 million grant to provide colorectal cancer screenings and education in two Mississippi Delta counties.

The grant, from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, will benefit St. Francis and Mississippi counties in eastern Arkansas.

“Arkansas has one of the highest deaths rates from colorectal cancer in the country,” said Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman, principal investigator of the colorectal cancer education and screening program and professor of surgery in the UAMS College of Medicine. “This is largely due to a lack of education about the importance of preventive health screenings and a lack of resources in rural areas. This grant will give us the opportunity to work with communities to address low colorectal screening rates.”

UAMS’ Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute will administer the program. The institute will work with local doctors in the two counties to increase the number of residents who are screened. The program calls for residents to receive testing kits they can use at home.

“We are very optimistic that by giving people the convenient home-based kits, they will feel more comfortable about the test and will be more likely to participate in the screening,” Henry-Tillman said.

UAMS estimates that about 1,690 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed in Arkansas in 2008. When diagnosed early, there is a 93 percent five-year survival rate. Risk factors include smoking, a sedentary lifestyle and a diet high in red meat and low in fiber.