Susan G. Komen for the Cure and other cancer foundations made huge strides Tuesday, when the South Carolina General Assembly allocated $2 million to expand the Best Chance Network, a program providing critical breast and cervical cancer screenings for low-income, uninsured South Carolina women.

The money will grant an additional 9,000 women with access to life-saving cancer screenings. By September 1, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control will lower the Best Chance Network eligibility age from 47 to 40, making the program consistent with American Cancer Society screening guidelines.

"The Best Chance Network has provided 191,260 screenings since July of 1991," said DHEC Deputy Commissioner for Health Services Lisa F. Waddell, M.D., MPH. "With the new funding there can be even more screenings and follow-ups to benefit women in our state."

According to the American Cancer Society's Cancer Facts and Figure 2008, an estimated 2,690 South Carolina women will be diagnosed with breast and cervical cancer this year, and 685 will die of these diseases. South Carolina ranks ninth in the country for deaths due to cervical cancer. The chances of surviving breast or cervical cancer increases dramatically if detected early. However, uninsured cancer patients are 60 percent more likely to die from cancer than those with insurance, due to in part to less access to screening, according to a study of all types of cancer by the American Cancer Society.

The Best Chance Network is a part of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program and implemented through the S. C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the American Cancer Society. Since 1991, the Best Chance Network has received federal funding to screen eligible women, but this is the first time state funds have been allocated for screening.

"Providing cancer screening and care for women who have no means to pay for these services is a giant step for South Carolina. This expanded program could not have happened without the commitment of a broad range of organizations and individuals working together to reduce the cancer burden in South Carolina," said John Ureda, Chair, South Carolina Cancer Alliance Coordinating Council.

For more information or to find a Best Chance Network provider in your community, call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 and ask about the Best Chance Network.