Reader lauds bipartisan vote on multi-cancer screenings

OPINION — I’m genuinely encouraged to see Congress delivering a major, bipartisan win in the fight against cancer. At a time when gridlock too often grabs the headlines, lawmakers came together to advance historic legislation that will allow Medicare to cover groundbreaking new multi-cancer early detection screenings for seniors once they are approved by the FDA.

This is exactly the kind of forward-looking action patients and families have been hoping for. These tests screen for dozens of cancers through a single blood draw, and in clinical studies, have been shown to detect cancer in the earlier stages — and to detect more cancers than we are currently able to screen for. Once this law is fully implemented, more Americans will be able to catch more cancers earlier — when treatment is more likely to be successful.