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 toward our shared goal to reach 80% in Every Community.

Take Action: Join ACS CAN in Responding to Proposed Cancer Funding Cuts 

Cuts Would Affect the CDC and CRCCP and Many Other Public Health Priorities 

On May 2, the president released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026, which includes sweeping cuts that would undo decades of progress in the fight against cancer.  

The proposal includes:  

• A 26.2% cut to the Department of Health and Human Services  
• A 37% cut to the National Institutes of Health  
• The complete elimination of the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, including critical programs that help people detect cancer early through mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, and colorectal cancer (CRC) screening through the Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP) 

As American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) President Lisa A. Lacasse explains: “Returning to funding levels from two decades ago – and three decades ago when accounting for biomedical inflation – will set this nation back dramatically in our ability to reduce death and suffering from a disease that is expected to kill more than 618,000 Americans this year alone.”  

These cuts don’t just threaten future progress – they jeopardize the lives of patients and families today and put America’s leadership in biomedical innovation at risk.   

Join our partner ACS CAN and act now to tell your lawmakers that we must stand up for lifesaving cancer research and prevention and reject these cuts. 

Read Our Newest Blog on the Work of the 2025 National Achievement Award Grand Prize Winner  

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, starting with our Grand Prize winner, Erie Family Health Centers (Erie). Erie is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that serves more than 95,000 patients at 13 locations across Chicago, IL and its northern suburbs. At the start of the project in 2023, Erie’s overall screening rate was 49% for CRC. Now, their rate jumped to 64.2%, screening 16,603 patients for CRC during the project period. To learn more about their multipronged and thoughtful approach to the work, lessons learned, and what was essential to their success, read their guest blog today! 

ACS Releases 2025 Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Facts and Figures 

The Report Shows Mixed Progress and More Work to Do 

The ACS Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Report, released April 23, shows mixed progress in major cancer risk factors, preventive behaviors, and screenings in a post-COVID-19 pandemic period among adults in the US. Smoking rates continued a long-term declining trend during the COVID-19 pandemic, but 27 million adults still smoked in 2023. Breast screening rebounded after decreasing or stalling during the pandemic, as well as CRC screening, reaching 60%, with 54% being colonoscopy and 11% being stool testing. However, past-year cervical cancer screening remained lower than pre-pandemic levels, continuing a disappointing pattern in up-to-date screening in the past two decades. Additionally, HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccination uptake was flat from 2021 to 2023, departing from prior years. Other major risk factors, such as excess body weight, physical inactivity, and heavy alcohol use remained stable during the pandemic, but were largely suboptimal. 

2025 Southeastern Colorectal Consortium Highlight 

The ACS NCCRT Will Be Presenting in an Interactive Session on Day 3 

The Southeastern Colorectal Cancer Consortium’s annual conference is fast approaching and being held in Savannah, GA from June 11-13, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency. The ACS NCCRT is looking forward to hosting an interactive session to preview our upcoming best practices guidebook on increasing CRC screening in rural settings, which is designed to support key community partners in understanding and overcoming the unique challenges and common barriers to CRC screening faced by these communities. Register to get a sneak peek of our new resource.  

ICYMI: Save the Date for the 2025 ACS NCCRT Annual Meeting 

The ACS NCCRT Will Gather Its Members in Nashville This Year 

We hope you will save the dates to join us for the 2025 ACS NCCRT Annual Meeting on November 19-21 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Updates, including the agenda, registration, and hotel block link, will be shared in this newsletter and on the event webpage in the coming months. 

Do you have a recent success that you think would be a good fit for this year’s annual meeting agenda? We always learn so much from our members’ work. If you have a recent colorectal cancer (CRC) success—whether it be published results, an innovative strategy, a policy change, progress towards closing health equity gaps, or another story to tell—we want to hear from you! Please complete this brief form to share about your work by end of day Friday, May 16, 2025.  

Recent and Upcoming CRC-Related Opportunities and Content 

Plan Ahead and Review Educational Events and Resources 

The ACS NCCRT would like to highlight a few recent and upcoming opportunities to get involved in CRC-related activities: 

• ACS NCCRT Vice-Chair, Gloria Coronado, PhD, was recently featured on a podcast titled “Colorectal Cancer Screening: Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of Noninvasive Options” by ReachMD. Listen by visiting this link. The episode was based on this recently published paper.  
• Two new screening-centered studies have come out from our members in recent weeks: 
• The Prevent Cancer Foundation released their 2025 Early Detection Survey results, which shows a 10-percentage point drop in the number of US adults 21 years of age and older that report having a routine medical appointment or routine cancer screening in the last year. Learn more here.  
• The Colorectal Cancer Alliance published their State of Screening Study, which includes a highlight about CRC screening misconceptions among Black and Hispanic adults. Read more here.  
• Join the ACS on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, from 3-4 PM ET for “Fueling the Mission: ACS Resources to Power Your Coalition’s Work”. The webinar will discuss the ACS’ Project ECHO Program and new SuperHub status, as well as explore our new interactive Cancer Screening Disparities Atlas, and other ACS resources. Register by visiting this link.  

Many thanks for the great work you do!

The ACS NCCRT Team

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