On March 10, 2023, our 2022 CGA-IGC president, Dr. Swati G. Patel, joined other colorectal cancer (CRC) experts, administration officials, patient advocates, and industry leaders from across the country to attend the Cancer Moonshot Colorectal Cancer Forum, hosted by the White House.
This national, multi-disciplinary coalition highlighted the existing successes in CRC screening and prevention, identified opportunities to improve early detection in all communities, and discussed advances in targeted treatment options.
Health equity and access to care were key themes across all panel discussions, with more efforts needed to reach underrepresented communities. Solutions discussed included providing nuanced messaging and resources to support tailored navigation programs.
A need for long-term investment in research, education, access to data, and high-quality, population-based care will require collaboration among the various organizations represented at the forum and stakeholders at every level.
CGA-IGC will continue to play a key role in advocating for those with familial, early-age onset, and #HereditaryGICancer in collaboration with our members and patient advocacy partners at Fight Colorectal Cancer and AliveAndKick'n.
Leaders who attended the Cancer Moonshot Colorectal Cancer Forum shared their perspectives:
"CGA-IGC and its members stand alongside our patient advocacy partners and support the call to improve equitable access to colorectal cancer screening and hereditary cancer risk assessment services. Hereditary syndromes cause 5-10% of colorectal cancers, and access to early screening and genomics services is critical for the best possible outcome for patients and families.
2022 President, Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancer; Associate Professor of Medicine and Director, University of Colorado Hereditary GI Cancer
"We must respond to the Call to Action that the President has put in front of us. We cannot be afraid to tackle the second leading cause of cancer in the country. We have to be able to provide access to care to all by leveraging the power in this room."
President, Fight Colorectal Cancer
"Your colorectal cancer screening plan should consist of your age, your family history, your family’s, and your personal genetic risk if you know it.
Followed by a discussion with your primary care physician at the time of adulthood what your screening plan should look like based on what you know."
Chief Executive Officer, American Cancer Society, and American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
"This is about access and information. Having information about this disease and preventive measures will save lives."
Colorectal Cancer Advocate and
wife of the late actor Chadwick Boseman
"Unless we have metrics to support that there are differences and disparities, we cannot find and disseminate those solutions."
Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases at the University of California Los Angeles and Fight Colorectal Cancer Board Member
"Less than 10% of all patients enroll in clinical trials, and we need to find other methods, including telehealth, to make clinical trials more accessible………. we need to educate patients and physicians about the importance of molecular testing, this can make a huge difference in a patient’s treatment."
Professor of Medicine and Director, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Young Adult Program
"Many patients think a clinical trial is a last resort, and this should not be. There is a lack of knowledge about what it takes to enroll in a clinical trial."
Research Advocate Program Manager, Fight Colorectal Cancer and Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Grant Reviewer
"We should be democratizing access to the data that will help patients get to treatment faster and better, to highlight and address the disparities, to be open about sharing data across public and private institutions, and to do it for the patients."
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Komodo Health
"What success for today looks like, is that we each take the charge and ideas that our panels so expertly provided and turn that into action……..Only then can we live up to the goal and the mission that the president has given all of us to end cancer as we know it together."
Deputy Assistant to the President for the Cancer Moonshot
"This is a tremendous opportunity to be in front of the great aggregator, our government. Colorectal cancer in the younger community is on the rise. Studies showing genetic predispositions being more prevalent are also on the rise. I feel like it’s my/our responsibility to ensure that the two are framed together so more research and funding can be performed. I also feel it’s incumbent on me specifically to ensure that the next generation is framing the story appropriately for the Lynch Syndrome community, as I’ve been very outspoken in considering myself as a Lynch Syndrome patient, who happened to have had colon cancer (twice). I’m more than happy to represent and stand alongside the colon cancer community, but understand that my focus is and always will be on the Lynch Syndrome community."
Co-Founder, AliveAndKickn and
Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal
Cancer Communications Committee Member