An estimated 145,000 people in this country will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year alone, and about 57,000 people will die from the disease.  When detected early, this kind of cancer can be fully cured more than 90 percent of the time, so getting the word out is absolutely critical. Dr. Julie Gerberding, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, talked with “Today” host Katie Couric in this special series called Confronting Colon Cancer.

Katie Couric:  You know, it's about the same number of people who died during the entire Vietnam War who are taken by this disease every single year, and yet not enough people are getting screened — only 44 percent of men and 41 percent of women 50 and over have been screened for this disease. What’s keeping them from doing it?

Dr. Julie Gerberding:  Well, I think there are two main things. One is that people just don't know that you can have colon cancer and be completely asymptomatic and healthy.  I think the other thing is not enough doctors are making the recommendation to their patients.  So we've got a knowledge gap and also the connection between the knowledge and the actual steps.

Couric:  It's still a part of our body that people don't feel completely comfortable discussing. We were saying how, even from an early age, you're taught to refer to your body euphemistically, you know, this part of your body.  As you say, everybody's got a colon, right?

Gerberding: Absolutely. Everybody has a colon. Everyone over 50 needs to get their colon checked.

Confronting Colon Cancer Learn more about Katie Couric's special series on "Today": What it's like to be a cancer survivor Katie Couric's personal message Get tested if you're over 50 More women diagnosed in 2005 State insurance coverage map (.PDF) Test your knowledge of colon cancer Colon cancer online resources A day in the life of a cancer researcher VIDEO: Segments from the 'Today' show More cancer news from MSNBC.com

Couric:  Just like you want to check other parts of your body, that needs to be healthy as well. We joined forces — the National Colorectal Research Alliance, which I co-founded with the Entertainment Industry Foundation, has joined forces with the Centers for Disease Control [and] we're doing sort of a multimedia campaign to get the word out, starting with print ads featuring yours truly, right?

Gerberding:  Exactly.

Couric:  Tell me a little bit about this campaign.  These will be appearing in magazines, right?

Gerberding:  The screen for life campaign is really designed to get people out and aware of the fact that they need to be screened. We’re putting it out in the print media – there'll be ads on television and the radio. You'll probably see them in airports the next time you're passing through one of the major airports, because we have these dioramas up with these posters.

Couric:  I was teasing Matt and Al about the fact that every year I become this nagging fishwife with a rolling pin. If you don't continue to pound the message then people really put this on the back burner because I know that screening went up after President Reagan was diagnosed, or they found a cancerous polyp in him and then it kind of declined after that, right?

Gerberding:  Well, it did. But, Katie, you've done a lot, too, and we really thank you because you have caused what we call “The Couric Effect,” which is many more people did get screened after you brought attention to this, and we know how important that is. But we've got a long way to go.

Couric:  I was going to say, a 20 percent increase, but, still, those numbers I told you earlier show a huge gap in the number of people who are not getting screened for this highly preventable disease.  Now, Morgan Freeman is participating in this campaign, which is terrific for a lot of reasons. We want to say thank you to Morgan Freeman.  He’s such a beloved actor and one of his friends, Debra Hill, a Hollywood producer, actually died from colon cancer last week, and I know that was the impetus for him getting involved in our campaign.  Also, this has been a catalyst for him. He plans to get screened as well for this disease. It's also very important, because African Americans have a much higher mortality rate, don't they, Dr. Gerberding? I understand that their mortality rate is 40 percent higher than that of white men and women.

Gerberding: That's right. Part of that is because they're not getting screened early.

Couric: I was going to say, is it access  to good screening and health care or is there something biological going on?

Gerberding:  Well, it certainly is access to care in the majority. If there are genetic factors or other issues, we haven't been able to detect them yet.  So I think the main thing is that all of us need to be screened, but African Americans and women in particular.

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