200 Advocates Gather in D.C. for 17th Annual Call-on Congress

March 14, 2023 • By Elizabeth@FightCRC

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National nonprofit advocacy organization Fight Colorectal Cancer (Fight CRC) is bringing together nearly 200 colorectal cancer survivors, caregivers, and advocates for the 17th Annual Call-on Congress event. Advocates will meet members of Congress to share their personal experience with colorectal cancer and to request they allocate more funds to colorectal cancer research and prevention programs.

Colorectal cancer (CRC), which embraces colon and rectal cancers, is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths for men and women combined in the United States. While the disease typically impacts an older population, over the last decade there has also been an unexplained increase in colorectal cancer incidence among those under the age of 50. In 2030, it is estimated that colorectal cancer will be the leading cause of cancer deaths for those ages 20-49, according to a 2021 JAMA study. 

Call-on Congress is an annual advocacy event, hosted by Fight CRC, which for the last three years due to COVID-19 has been hosted virtually. In 2023, advocates will return to Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress and their offices to advocate for:

  • $51 million for the CDC’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP), which will allow the CDC to fund additional screening programs and enable more widespread implementation of evidence-based interventions to increase screening rates among the nation’s most vulnerable populations.
  • $20 million to create a Colorectal Cancer Research Program within the Department of Defense (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP). Currently colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death for men and women and the only cancer within the top five cancer killers not to have its own research program within the CDMRP.
  • Their member of Congress to become a champion for colorectal cancer and change the statistics around the disease by joining the Colorectal Cancer Caucus.

We are hosting the largest Call on Congress event to date.  Survivors and their families from across the country will bravely share their stories and will ask policy makers to prioritize funding for the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in our country.  

Call-on Congress 2023 is sponsored by: Exact Sciences, Exelixis, Foundation Medicine, Fujifilm, Guardant Health, Intuitive, Merck, No-Shave November, Pfizer, and Ruesch Center for the Cure of GI Cancers.