Welcome to the latest edition of CRC News, the American Cancer Society National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (ACS NCCRT) newsletter for ACS NCCRT members and partners working together to save more lives from colorectal cancer. 

New Blog: How Project 80% Screened Over 135,000 People Since 2014 

Read Our Newest Blog on the Work of One of the 2025 National Achievement Honorees  

As part of a series, the ACS NCCRT is thrilled to highlight our 2025 National Achievement Award winners with in-depth blogs on their work. This time, we are focusing on Project 80% at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Project 80%). Project 80% is a screening program funded by the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) designed to reduce incidence and mortality related to colorectal cancer (CRC) in more than 60 counties in Central, East, Southeast and West Texas and the Rio Grande Valley, particularly in rural and urban health professional shortage areas. Through a combination of partnerships with clinics, their own Community Health Workers (CHWs), and system changes adapted to each clinics’ populations, they have screened over 135,000 under- and uninsured Texans since 2014. To learn more about their thoughtful approach to the work, lessons learned, and what was essential to their success, read their guest blog today! 

Newest Health Center Program Uniform Data System (UDS) Data Released  

Over 3.6 Million Adults 45–75 Years of Age Screened in 2024

This week, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) released the 2024 UDS (Uniform Data System) data for national Health Center Program awardees (federally qualified health centers). HRSA reported an overall CRC screening rate of 42.71% in 2024, which represents an increase from the 2023 rate of 41.10%, the first two years in which FQHCs are reporting data for adults 45–75 years of age, up from the previous reporting for adults 50–75 years of age. Notably, the total number of patients screened for CRC reached 3,617,246 in 2024, up from 3,306,873 in 2023. 

The ACS NCCRT would like to congratulate our partners at HRSA and the National Association for Community Health Centers (NACHC) for championing efforts to increase CRC screening among their grantee and member health centers partners. And most of all, we’d like to share a huge round of applause for the clinicians and staff at health centers for their persistence and innovation in working day in and day out to provide eligible patients with the opportunity to screen for this largely preventable disease. Visit the HRSA website to learn more about the UDS measure and to find the UDS screening rate for health centers in your state. Visit ACS NCCRT’s Data & Progress webpage to learn about our progress with other national measures. 

Celebrate National Health Center Week by Utilizing Resources to Increase CRC Screening 

Multiple ACS NCCRT Resources Address Increasing CRC Screening in the Health Center Setting 

The ACS NCCRT is excited to call attention to the vital role that our nation’s health centers play in delivering CRC screening this week for National Health Center Week (August 3-9, 2025), a campaign from the National Association of Community Health Centers. If you or your partners work in health centers, we encourage you to explore the wide range of resources to support this work available in the ACS NCCRT Resource Center and on the ACS NCCRT website. Here are a select few:   

• ACS NCCRT Messaging and Communications Hub, which includes general messaging for the unscreened, lead time messaging, and guidebooks and briefs to reach special populations. 
• Steps for Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates: A Manual for Primary Care Practices, which uses a step-by-step format to provide evidence-based, expert-endorsed strategies to improve CRC screening rates in primary care practices. 
• Clinician’s Reference: Stool-Based Tests for Colorectal Cancer Screening is designed to introduce (or reintroduce) clinicians to the value of stool-based testing for CRC and was recently updated in January 2025. 
• ACS CRC Resources for Patients and Clinicians, which includes evidence-based, understandable, and actionable resources to help healthcare teams educate and empower their patients and caregivers. 
• Health center success story blogs, including the profile of this year’s National Achievement Grand Prize Award Winner, Erie Family Health Centers. 

Recent Publications Illuminate Successes with CRC Screening  

Review Findings from ACS Researchers and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration 

• Two New ACS Studies Report Surge in CRC Screening and Early Diagnosis in U.S. Adults 45-49, Described in this ACS Press Release 
  • In a new study led by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and published this week in JAMA, scientists found that after a stable 15-year trend, diagnoses of local-stage CRC rose steeply in adults aged 45-49 years old during 2019 to 2022 in the United States, including a 50% relative increase from 2021 to 2022 (from 11.7 to 17.5 cases per 100,000).  
  • In support of these findings, another ACS led study also published this week in JAMA reports that CRC screening among U.S. adults 45-49 years of age (as reported in the National Health Interview Survey)  increased by 62% from 2019 to 2023.  
• 2024 ACS NCCRT National Achievement Awardee Publishes Paper on Impact of Medicaid Initiative on CRC Screening Rates 
  • In 2022, Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, or Florida Medicaid, created an innovative finance policy which offered Medicaid managed care plans who reached over 50% screened for CRC relief from liquidated damages. The policy resulted in a significant improvement in screening uptake by Medicaid enrollees from ages 45-55 and from 56-65, accounting for over 51% of those eligible getting screened for CRC during the project period. To learn more about their work, which earned them a 2024 ACS NCCRT National Achievement Award, read their newly published Research Letter in JAMA.  

ICYMI: New ACS NCCRT Resource Released Focusing on Increasing CRC Screening in Rural Communities 

Practical Guidebook Aims to Support the Work of Key Community and Clinical Partners 

Two weeks ago, the ACS NCCRT released our latest resource: Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening in Rural Communities: A Practical Guide. This guidebook is intended to support key community and clinical partners in understanding and overcoming the unique challenges and common barriers to CRC screening faced in rural communities. The guidebook features:  
 

• Recent data and statistics illustrating the burden of CRC in rural areas  
• Five recommended actions to increase CRC screening rates  
• Five case studies highlighting best practices and lessons learned from geographically and demographically diverse organizations 

We also highlighted the Guidebook in a new resource webinar on July 28, and a recording of the webinar along with the slides are available now in our Resource Center.  

ACS National Navigation Roundtable Wants to Hear from Patient Navigators and Partners 

The Survey is Examining Principal Illness Navigation Codes 

The ACS National Navigation Roundtable (ACS NNRT) launched an important survey to gather insights on the awareness, decision-making, and use of the Principal Illness Navigation (PIN) codes developed by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Billing codes were created and released in 2024 to support the reimbursement of patient navigation services. Recently we learned that the next iteration of the CMS Physician Fee Schedule also includes the billing codes. ACS NNRT is partnering with ACS Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) to evaluate how these codes are being utilized and identify any remaining barriers to implementation. If you are using the codes, please complete this brief survey, whichwill only take 5-10 minutes to complete and closes on August 25, 2025. If you have any questions, please reach out to [email protected]. 

Many thanks for the great work you do!

The ACS NCCRT Team

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