The following email news update was shared with NCCRT members and partners on Friday, May 25, 2018. Sign up to subscribe to our regular email updates.

New NCCRT State-Level CRC Coalition Guide and Workbook

We are pleased to share with you two new NCCRT tools: Guide to the Development of State-Level CRC Coalitions and the corresponding Development of State-Level Colorectal Cancer Coalition Workbook.  These resources highlight lessons learned from five states that have effective, well established collaborations that focus on increasing colorectal cancer screening rates.  Many thanks to Nikki Hayes, Nina Miller, Karen Peterson, Lorrie Graaf, Sarah Shafir, Djenaba Joseph, Anne Major, Angela Moore, Kaitlin Sylvester, Emily Bell, and especially, Caleb Levell, for all their input and work editing the guide, as well as to the many experts interviewed who provided the advice and expertise featured in the resources.

Replay of Webinar on State-Level CRC Coalition Guide and Workbook

In case you missed it, the replay of the May 2nd, webinar, Developing State-level CRC Coalitions, can be found here.  Many thanks to Caleb Levell, Shauntay Davis, and Katie Bathje for their excellent presentations.

SAVE THE DATE:  June 19^th, 3:00pm ET Webinar on New NCCRT Risk Assessment and Screening Toolkit to Detect Familial, Hereditary and Early Onset CRC

Please save Tuesday, June 19^th at 3:00pm ET for an NCCRT webinar to introduce participants to our soon-to-be-completed new resource: Risk Assessment and Screening Toolkit to Detect Familial, Hereditary and Early Onset CRC.  The primary goal of the toolkit is to enable primary care clinicians to implement a structured family history collection system to identify individuals at increased or high risk of CRC and develop a management strategy for those individuals. A secondary goal is to facilitate timely diagnostic evaluation of patients with signs or symptoms of early onset CRC.  Registration information will soon be available.  Additionally, you may find this article about the toolkit of interest:  https://www.curetoday.com/articles/toolkit-aims-to-address-barriers-in-detection-of-early-onset-colorectal-cancer  Many thanks to the NCCRT Family History and Early Onset Task Group for their hard work on this much-needed new resource.

Three New York Counties Hit 80%!

Congratulations to three New York counties: Livingston, Oswego, and Tompkins that have reached the 80% screening goal!  You can read this article about Livingston County and their impressive rate increase here:  http://www.thelcn.com/lcn05/livingston-county-meets-cancer-screening-goal-20180516  As always, if you know of a system, plan, location, or practice that has hit 80%, please submit the name to our Hall of Fame, so we can display the name and send a congratulatory letter and web badge.

Relevant Journal Articles and New Stories

• A recent paper appeared in Current Gastroenterology Reports, entitled Colorectal Cancer in the Young, reviewed the epidemiology, clinicopathologic, molecular features, proposed risk factors, and prevention/treatment approach for early onset CRC (EOCRC) patients.  The review found that EOCRC appears to have a different spectrum of clinical, pathologic, and molecular presentation compared to CRC diagnosed in older individuals. Additionally, EOCRCs are disproportionately located in the distal colon, patients tend to present with symptoms, there is a longer interval between symptoms and diagnosis, and the majority of cases are sporadic without clear risk factors.  Congratulations to NCCRT Steering Committee member and study author, Dennis Ahnen, as well as lead author, Swati Patel, for this important article.
• A recent article appeared in Health Promotions Practice, on Using Community Engagement and Navigators to Increase Colon Cancer Screening and Patient Outcomes. The paper looks at the outcomes of a theory-driven tailored intervention developed in partnership with the community used evidence-based practices to increase knowledge about colon cancer and screening and assist patients in completing screenings. During the 16 months of delivery screening, patient navigators integrated into gastroenterology clinics met all goals, which included enrolling an ethnically diverse group of participants through in-reach and community outreach, facilitating screening completions for 61% of patients identified as needing screening, and obtaining satisfaction ratings from 89% of participants. Navigated males (but not females) were significantly less likely than non-navigated males to have either poor or only fair bowel preparation quality. Congratulations to the study authors, and thank you to June Hunter for bringing this article to our attention.
• A recent article appeared in ACG Magazine, featuring the work of the Illinois Colon Cares Program, led by Dr. Karen Kim.  The article, Getting it Right:  How Can We Screen the Unscreened, describes how the Illinois Colon Cares team was able to use unused colonoscopy slots to provide CRC screening for FQHC patients.  Congratulations to Dr. Kim and her team on this innovative program!

Job Opportunity:  Vice President of Prevention, Colorectal Cancer Alliance

The Colorectal Cancer Alliance is recruiting for a new position, Vice President of Prevention, who will serve as leader and builder of the Philadelphia Prevention Project as well as national efforts of the Alliance to increase screening and prevention of colorectal cancer.  Please see this link for more information: https://www.ccalliance.org/careers/vice-president-of-prevention or contact Patrice Brown, Vice President of Programs for the Alliance with questions: [email protected]

Registration is Open for the 2018 Southeastern Colorectal Cancer Consortium

Registration is open for the 2018 Southeastern Colorectal Cancer Consortium, which will be held in New Orleans, June 27th through June 29th.   The meeting will tackle best practices, lessons learned, and how to move forward in our work surrounding colorectal cancer.  View the preliminary agenda here. Meeting registration can be accessed here: https://give.lsuhealthfoundation.org/crc2018

CDC Introduces Cancer Prevention Insider Newsletter

Very soon, CDC will launch a new monthly newsletter, Cancer Prevention Insider. It will provide the latest news about CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC) and is intended for public health professionals and DCPC partners. If interested, subscribe here.

NCCRT Asian Americans and Colorectal Cancer Screening Companion Guide

Since May is Asian American/Pacific Islander Month, we’d like to remind you that the NCCRT has an Asian Americans and Colorectal Cancer Screening Companion Guide for your use, created in partnership with the University of Chicago’s Center for Asian Health Equity.  This guide seeks to provide advice about how to communicate about CRC screening with seven Asian American subgroups and covers such topics as: perceptions about CRC, barriers to screening, recommended communications channels, and tested messages about CRC screening in several Asian languages.

Loss of NCCRT Friend, Chris Stadelman

Finally, we are sorry to share the news that NCCRT friend and chief of staff for Governor Tomblin, Chris Stadelman, has died of colon cancer.  Many of you will recall seeing Chris speak about his experience with the disease, when he came to the 2015 NCCRT annual meeting to accept an award on the governor’s behalf, after being instrumental in getting Governor Tomblin to sign the 80% by 2018 pledge.  Chris had not planned in advance to share his story, but made an impromptu decision to talk openly about his experiences with the NCCRT audience.  It was an unbelievably moving moment, as Chris shared his story with passion, humor, and honesty.  Please join me in expressing our condolences to Chris’s family, friends, and colleagues.

Many thanks to all of you for the important work you do.