New Mexico Veterans Call for State Funding of Early Lung Cancer Screening

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Hundreds of State Veterans from seven organizations to converge on New Mexico State Capital and push for legislation to screen veterans for lung cancer
January 21, 2008: 08:00 AM EST

SANTA FE, N.M., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire- FirstCall/ -- Busloads of New Mexico veterans will meet state legislators January 29th as part of "Veterans Day" in Santa Fe to push for $1.3 million in funding of an early lung cancer screening program for veterans being conducted by New Mexico Tech University and Biomoda (http://www.biomoda. com), an Albuquerque biomedical company that has developed a non-invasion test for early detection of lung cancer.

Hundreds of veterans and their families representing the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), American Legion, Am-Vets, Disabled American Veterans, Black Veterans Association of New Mexico, Jewish War Veterans, Gold Star Mothers, and the Blue Star Mothers will board buses in Taos, Espanola and Albuquerque as the sun rises to take part in the day's ceremonies, including meetings to push their legislative agenda at the Round House.

"The health and welfare of the men and women who served our country is of utmost importance to every person who takes part in this event," said Jesse Anzures, legislative director of the DAV. "We are meeting with our legislators to remind them that they too have a duty to serve those who have served our state and our country by supporting important medical programs like early lung cancer screening developed by Biomoda."

"Biomoda is proud to participate in delivering state-of-the- art healthcare for our Veterans" said John Cousins, president of Biomoda. "I feel a deep and long-standing commitment to our Veterans."

Biomoda's patented technology, a non-invasive cytology based assay, is designed for cancer screening of large populations at a reasonable cost. Current diagnostic methods for lung cancer, including CT scans and X-rays, often detect the disease only at more advanced stages and are relatively expensive.

Lung cancer claims more lives than any other cancer and veterans have a 25% higher rate of lung cancer than the general population, according to U.S. Department of Defense statistics. The expected 5-year survival rate for all patients combined in whom lung cancer is diagnosed is 15%. At the present time, only 16 percent of lung cancer cases are diagnosed at this early stage.

Contact: John Cousins (505)821-0875

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