2025 Global CRC Congress Advances Health Equity in Colorectal Cancer

The Global Colon Cancer Association presents the 2025 Global Colorectal Cancer Congress, which will be held virtually on November 12, 2025. This year’s Congress, with the theme “Count Us In: Data, Dignity & Disruption in Global Cancer Equity”, brings together an international roster of expert speakers, patient advocates, researchers, clinicians and policymakers to address persistent disparities in colorectal cancer care and outcomes.

Despite advances in colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention, diagnosis and treatment, many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) continue to face severe gaps in surveillance, care access and inclusion in research. As the 2024 Congress highlighted, registries that rely solely on lab-confirmed cases tend to undercount patients in communities without biopsy access or formal systems, distorting the global picture of disease burden and reinforcing inequities through flawed policy decisions and under-resourcing.  

This year’s Congress will examine three core pillars:

• Data — ensuring accurate and inclusive cancer registries that capture the full spectrum of patients globally.

• Dignity — centering patient voices and experiences, especially those historically excluded from research and care.  

• Disruption — challenging entrenched systems of exclusion and driving innovation in policy, advocacy and care delivery.  

By convening the 2025 Congress around “Data, Dignity & Disruption,” GCCA aims to shift the paradigm: from passive inclusion to proactive design of systems that truly reflect global diversity, address inequities, and drive meaningful change.

GCCA is honored to welcome these esteemed speakers.

• Atul Budhuk, PhD, Professor in Epidemiology at Centre for Cancer Epidemiology, Tata Memorial Centre – Mumbai, India

• Gladys Chebet Chesumbai, Head of National Cancer Registry, National Cancer Institute of Kenya

• Abiola Ibraheem, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of Illinois College of Medicine – Chicago

• Hussain Jafri, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of the World Patients Alliance

• Mazvita Muchengeti, PhD, Head of Department, National Cancer Registry of South Africa, National Health Laboratory Service

• Jyoti Shelar, Independent Journalist and Strategic Communications Advisor

• Candace Henley, MPH, CPN, Director of Equity and Partnerships of the Global Colon Cancer Association

The event is being offered virtually, enabling global access and broader participation from stakeholders across continents. Interested attendees can register online.  

GCCA’s Director of Equity and Partnerships, Candace Henley, said, “With this Congress, our goal is to ignite equity, access, and urgency for colorectal cancer care. Every patient, every community, must be reached and must be counted; their dignity and our integrity depend on it. Our challenge is clear: to bring visibility to the invisible, leave no one behind, and to ensure that advances of the future become realities for the most vulnerable today.”

GCCA would like to thank the sponsors of the 2025 Global CRC Congress, Bristol Myers Squibb, Guardant Health, Johnson & Johnson, and Bayer.