Colorectal Cancer Partnership (CCCP)

Partnership leads: Aimee James, Linda Moreland and Stacy Edwards

Partnership Updates

The Colorectal Cancer Community Partnership (CCCP) has continued to meet quarterly and aims to provide cancer education and promote screening to underserved community members across St. Louis and our surrounding regions.

Our walk-through inflatable colon, which educates people about polyps and colon cancer, was featured at six outreach events across the metropolitan region and Illinois before the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to in-person events. In September 2019, the partnership took part in the W. Jane Gee Colon Cancer Fundraiser, benefitting the Colorectal Cancer Alliance and St. Louis Food Outreach. In February 2020, the CCCP also held an “8 Ways to Prevent Colon Cancer” event at the Maryland Heights Community Center for Oasis, a non-profit educational organization focused on lifelong learning.

To continue providing educational outreach during the pandemic, the CCCP developed a virtual educational speaking series. The first event, “Colorectal Cancer Screening Options during COVID-19” with Dr. Paul Wise sought to address concerns about low screening rates due to the pandemic by describing the safety protocols in place in hospitals and clinics. Dr. Timothy McBride presented the second event, “Understanding Medicare and Medicaid Coverage for Cancer Care” ahead of the Missouri Medicaid expansion vote in August.  We look forward to offering these events quarterly.

The Colorectal Cancer Community Partnership strives to:

• Develop strategies to reduce the burden of colorectal cancer among those with the highest rates of colorectal cancer in the St. Louis metropolitan area. These people are often screened less or not at all, which leads to worse outcomes once diagnosed.
• Work with local providers, community members and cancer survivors to raise awareness and decrease the burden of colorectal cancer, from prevention through survivorship.
• Identify resources for colorectal cancer and work with providers and community members to raise awareness of pathways to such resources.

• The partnership has developed a colorectal cancer community resource guide to complement existing tools and further classify local resources for easy access among community partners and patients.
• Increase awareness of research opportunities among partnership members and increase community involvement in research, including study participation and contribution to research design and sharing of results.
• The partnership serves as a forum for researchers and clinicians to communicate with partnership members about their current studies and interests.
• Leverage partnership activities by obtaining additional funding to help eliminate colorectal cancer disparities.

For more information about the partnership and specific projects, contact PECaD at [email protected]. Find out more information about colorectal cancer.