January 8, 2020 :: Author: Richard Wender, MD

Dr. Richard Wender is the Chief Cancer Control Officer of the American Cancer Society and the Chair of the NCCRT.

Welcome to 2020: Reflecting back and looking ahead  

Happy New Year to all our NCCRT members and pledged partners! We are so excited for the upcoming opportunities throughout 2020 to continue creating stories of success together as we build and implement 80% in Every Community.

For many organizations, the beginning of the year is a time to not only reflect, but also a time to inspire staff, volunteers, advocates, partners, and others to recommit, reengage, and reenergize around shared goals and ambitions. Of course, NCCRT members and partners consistently devote endless reserves of passion, urgency, and determination to our shared cause. You provide the leadership qualities and enthusiasm needed to ensure our collective work is effective and successful. Reviewing our achievements together over the past decade tells the whole story.

Recent Data on Colorectal Cancer Screening Trends

In 2018, we were able to showcase many of the 80% by 2018 success stories by publishing the Beyond Thankful report; yet, it wasn’t until November 2019 that we would wholly know the true impact of our previous campaign. The 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor and Surveillance System (BRFSS) reports that colorectal cancer screening rates have increased from 65.2% in 2012 to 68.8% in 2018. That translates to 9.3 million more individuals screened. By the end of 2018, more than 105 Medicare plans reported screening at 80% or above. Just as impressive, Federally Qualified Health Centers have achieved a 14-point increase since 2012 in their colorectal cancer screening rates – now reporting at 44%. Take a deeper dive into the data by registering to attend our next webinar on January 30^th: What Do the Data Tell Us: What Can We Learn From the Latest Colorectal Cancer Screening Rate Trends Over Time?

Charting our Course for 80% in Every Community

80% in Every Community is a much different campaign than 80% by 2018. We are making a commitment to achieve high colorectal screening rates in every community regardless of the hurdles that must be crossed, and this expectation establishes a difficult, but critical, challenge for all of us.

The 2019 NCCRT Annual Meeting, Charting our Course to 80% in Every Community, focused on just this issue, and we welcomed more than 200 attendees to Baltimore to discuss, identify, and plan for challenges and needs ahead. The event agenda and many presentations can be found on the event webpage.

During this year’s Annual Meeting, we also shared details about the 80% in Every Community Strategic Plan, which serves as a roadmap for helping communities and organizations in overcoming barriers to reach our shared goal of achieving 80% colorectal cancer screening rates in communities nationwide. The strategic plan is meant to be comprehensive, yet action-oriented, and establishes priorities that involve the full spectrum of the colorectal cancer control field, including public awareness and provider education, clinical practice and health systems change, policy action, and community capacity building.

Download the current draft strategic plan. We welcome your comments and feedback through end of day Friday, January 10^th.

March 2020 – National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

I’m also excited to announce that we will be hosting our annual Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month broadcast on Thursday, March 5th from 2-3 PM ET. We hope you will join us to celebrate national achievements and to hear the latest state of the field updates that inform our work. Plus, you will once again have the opportunity to participate by submitting a video that showcases what you are doing to improve colorectal cancer screening in your community! Stay tuned for information on how to submit your videos in the next couple weeks. For now, please save the date and let us know if you plan to attend. We’ll share registration and more information in the coming weeks.

Thank you for all that you are doing to achieve 80% in Every Community, and best wishes for a happy, healthy and productive new decade!