About the 5C

Mission

The Calhoun County Cancer Control Coalition  — the 5C — was formed in late 2005 as a result of a desire to reduce the burden of cancer to the citizens of Calhoun County through community collaboration. The coalition has become an integral part of the cancer fighting community due to the variety of members that serve on the Coalition ranging from medical professionals to cancer survivors to business professionals to government employees to lay people, all with one goal, to reduce the burden of cancer in the county.

The 5C consists of three subgroups:

Each of these subgroups acts to lead the fight in their area of interest and also partners with other groups in the county to maximize potential and to collaborate on projects. The colorectal sub-group is led by Dr. Mahesh Karamchandani, a Battle Creek Colorectal Surgeon. The Breast sub-group is lead by Wayne Young, Director of the Cancer Care Center at BCHS, and the Lung/Tobacco sub-group is led by Carol Meyer-Niedzwiecki, Substance Abuse and Tobacco Reduction Coalition.

At the time the Coaliton was formed, a presentation developed by the Calhoun County Public Health Department and the Family Health Center showed that, in Calhoun County, cancer is the number one reason for years of potential life lost and is second to only heart disease as the leading cause of death, as illustrated in these graphs (each graph will open in a new, presized window; you may need to maximize the window size for best detail):

That presentation also showed, as illustrated in the graph below, that the cancer rates in Calhoun County are much higher than the cancer rates for the State of Michigan (again the graph will open in a new, presized window; you may need to maximize the window size for best detail):

The 5C is slowly seeing results because of the specific efforts to increase the number of patients who are being screened either through mammography (breast) or colonoscopy (colorectal). Our expectation is mortality rates will drop in the future due to efforts now that encourage early detection and smoking cessation.

To help you see the progress, you should view the current statistics for Michigan residents. Please note that the data presented is dynamic and the data displayed depends upon the item(s) selected in the left hand sidebar; each selection will display a different table of statistics. For example, if you select "breast" under "Incidence & Mortality" you will be presented with a table of data showing the incidence of breast cancer among Michigan females during the years of 1985-2007.

Engaging the Community

5C looks forward to engaging the community in more activities to raise cancer awareness and help reduce the cancer burden in our county.