Fight CRC Joins White House Cancer Moonshot Colorectal Cancer Forum

March 7, 2023 • By Elizabeth@FightCRC

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The White House will host a Cancer Moonshot Colorectal Cancer Forum on Friday, March 10 from 3-5:30pm ET in recognition of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Anjee Davis, President of national advocacy organization Fight Colorectal Cancer (Fight CRC) is a speaker and a participant in this event. This meeting builds on a July 2022 meeting at the White House, when Fight CRC brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to discuss their common goal — to increase screening and ultimately decrease deaths from colorectal cancer. 

As part of the reignited Cancer Moonshot, First Lady Jill Biden announced a call to action on cancer screening to jump-start progress on the nearly 10 million cancer screenings in the United States that were missed as a result of the pandemic. On July 25, 2022, Fight CRC convened a work group of patient advocacy and business leaders with White House Cancer Moonshot coordinators and representatives from federal agencies. They leveraged their shared commitment to increasing colorectal cancer screening to help meet the Cancer Moonshot goals. The meeting was just the beginning of conversations between the work group, White House, and federal agencies for sharing ideas and developing innovative solutions.   

“Our focus at the Cancer Moonshot Colorectal Cancer Forum is to advocate for taking action, not just talk about it but operationalize change,” said Anjee Davis, Fight CRC President. “We need to dig deeper into the systemic and behavioral patterns that accompany colorectal cancer from screening to treatment and identify the best opportunities to intervene, educate and – ultimately – drive large-scale advancements.  We have the momentum to do this, and it will ultimately save lives.”

The Cancer Moonshot Colorectal Cancer Forum will occur just two days before Fight CRC advocates from across the country will come together to place more than 27,000 blue flags to represent the number of people ages 20-49 who will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2030. It is projected that by 2023, colorectal cancer will be the leading cause of cancer deaths in those under 50. Advocates will also meet with their members of Congress to request they allocate more funds to colorectal cancer research.

In less than a year, Fight CRC has made significant progress in their advocacy efforts by gathering and working collaboratively with leaders and stakeholders to break down barriers and boldly consider strategies to increase access to colorectal screening. Watch the Cancer Moonshot Colorectal Cancer Forum live on March 10 at wh.gov/live.