Global Colon Cancer Association

Programs: Growing the international colon cancer community: the gcca now represents 40 non for profit organizations from 29 countries. Our membership of patient groups has increased the organization's footprint in the international patient group arena. Over the past year, the gcca has added more than a dozen patient group members and now represents nearly all colon cancer patient groups around the world. Increasing our membership makes the organization much stronger in the policy arena and when advocating on behalf of the colon cancer community. As a result of increasing our membership, we have gained more credibility with potential funders as well as policy makers around the globe. This has resulted in an increase in funding as well as advocacy work.

advocating for patient centered policy: the gcca is a leader in the international policy arena, representing the more than 6,000,000 colon cancer patients around the world. The gcca invests substantial time presenting the patient perspective to regulators, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders, including the fda, ema, who and other governing bodies. Where possible the gcca's travel expenses are paid by other coalitions so the organization does not incur a great deal of expenses in comparison to the amount of work performed. In 2016, the gcca worked on policy issues around the globe.

education: addressing the needs of the colon cancer community and the general public is the key to tackling the problems associated with colon cancer. With the disease being the most preventable major cancer thru screening, educating people about screenings is a major mission of the gcca and all of its members. In 2016, we returned to latin american where colon cancer is on the rise and little to no patient advocacy exists. There is no formal screening program in place, little access to high quality therapies and no real awareness of this significant healthcare burden. As part of the gcca's strategy, we are hosted two conferences in september, 2016 which had approximately 500 attendees in brazil. The goal was to raise awareness of crc to patients, patient advocates, the healthcare community and to policy makers. As a result of the conference, patient groups will be formed and latin american will be given the tools which have worked elsewhere to help battle colon cancer in latin america. We also formed our first access advisory council which met in brazil and who will guide the gcca in helping created a national policy on screening. In the meantime, the gcca is planning on more conferences in other regions in 2018. Further, the gcca attends major oncology and gastroenterology conferences where we frequently are also invited to speak, present or other educate the patient advocate community. Last, the gcca educates thru social media, and other programs we currently have where we provide forums for patient education and information exchange among patients.