Your Chance to Advocate From Your Desktop!

Overview of NCRA’s requests to Congress in the Advocacy Now Campaign
Support More Accurate, Up to Date Cancer Statistics by backing much needed funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC). 

While program funding over the years has increased, much more is needed. Currently, an increase does not even keep pace with inflation. NCRA wants Congress to support $ 478.6 million for the DCPC, including $26 million in funding to establish a national Cancer Surveillance Cloud Computing Platform. CDC is working to greatly increase the speed of reporting by creating a national cloud computing platform, with the goal of publishing national data in just 12 months. Real time reporting will give health providers, researchers, and public health officials the data they need to make timelier and better-informed decisions about cancer care, research, and policy. This is what will ultimately save lives. 

Next, NCRA is asking Members of Congress to consider co-sponsoring upcoming legislation (the Counting Veterans’ Cancer Act of 2022) that will require that all cancer cases among veterans are reported by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) to cancer registries. The Counting Veterans Cancer Act will: 

• provide more accurate national statistics on veterans' cancer cases;
• help identify cancer-related disparities in the veterans’ community; 
• improve understanding of the cancer-related needs of veterans; 
• increase opportunities for veterans with cancer to be included in clinical trials, cancer-related research and analysis. 

The Counting Veterans’ Cancer Act will help ensure all veterans receive the highest quality cancer care they need and deserve. According to 2017 data, approximately 26,500 cancer cases among veterans were not reported to state cancer registries funded through NPCR. Federal law requires the CDC and the National Cancer Institute to collect cancer data for all newly diagnosed cancer cases, but that cannot be achieved due to frequent lack of reporting by VA medical facilities. The Counting Veterans Cancer Act is a common-sense solution to a very fixable problem.

Take Action

1. Co-sponsoring the forthcoming Counting Veterans Cancer Act to ensure all veterans’ cancer cases are reported by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to cancer registries. 
2. Funding to implement a nationwide cloud registry system to modernize cancer data reporting and publishing. 

Write To Congress