BUILDING THE NATIONAL CANCER COLLECTIVE (Part 1)

 MBCGA and NCC Open Collaborative Dialogue with FORCE

By Catherine Crowley & the UNCOVERED Editorial Team

8/11/2026- The cancer advocacy community possesses extraordinary expertise, resources, and committed organizations. Yet many of the challenges facing patients and survivors—early detection, genetic risk, access to care, rehabilitation, mental health, survivorship, research, and public policy—extend well beyond the boundaries of any single cancer diagnosis.

This reality is helping drive the development of the National Cancer Collective (NCC), a national initiative designed to bring cancer organizations, survivors, advocates, healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, and policy stakeholders into a larger collaborative community.

An important early step in that effort occurred recently when the Male Breast Cancer Global Alliance (MBCGA) hosted a strategic discussion with FORCE (Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered). Representing FORCE was Lisa Schlager, Vice President of Public Policy. The meeting included MBCGA CEO Cheri Ambrose, NCC, Firefighters Against Cancers and Exposures President Lennard Goetze, Ed.D, survivorship ambassador and NCC leader Scott Baker and Assoc. Director of IPHS (Institute for Progressive Health Sciences) Dan Root.

The NCC team is especially appreciative of FORCE and Schlager for taking the time to meet, exchange ideas, and explore areas of common interest. The conversation represented precisely what the National Cancer Collective hopes to encourage across the country: organizations meeting organizations, advocates meeting advocates, and leaders discovering where their missions intersect.

Collaboration Without Losing Identity

The NCC is not being created to compete with or replace established cancer organizations. Quite the opposite. Its purpose is to help connect them.

Cancer advocacy in America is extensive but decentralized. Individual organizations have developed important expertise within particular cancers, patient populations, research priorities, and policy initiatives. NCC seeks to provide connective infrastructure through which those organizations can maintain their identities while gaining access to a broader advocacy network.

As Goetze explained, the cancer community does not necessarily need organizational duplication. What is often missing is an infrastructure that enables existing organizations, advocates, survivors, and professionals to find one another and identify where their priorities intersect.

That philosophy places partnership-building at the center of the NCC mission.

Potential collaborations may include educational programs, shared communications, research partnerships, survivorship initiatives, professional introductions, legislative advocacy, public awareness campaigns, and coordinated outreach.

Learning from FORCE

The meeting with FORCE was particularly meaningful because of the organization's established experience in hereditary cancer education, advocacy, community engagement, and public policy. For a developing national network such as NCC, conversations with experienced organizations provide opportunities to learn, understand existing priorities, avoid unnecessary duplication, and identify where additional collaboration may create value.

Schlager emphasized that effective public policy becomes stronger when patient and family experiences are connected with accurate information and organized advocacy. Creating better communication among these constituencies can ultimately contribute to more informed healthcare policy.

Importantly, the meeting was an introductory dialogue rather than the announcement of a predetermined formal partnership. That distinction reflects NCC's philosophy: meaningful alliances should grow from communication, mutual respect, complementary capabilities, and clearly identified opportunities to work together.

Building the National Network

This meeting is only a beginning. The National Cancer Collective's immediate priority is outreach and relationship development. NCC intends to meet cancer organizations across disease categories and invite survivors, advocates, healthcare leaders, researchers, educators, and policy stakeholders to participate in building a more connected national cancer community.

The goal is not for every organization to become the same. The goal is to create solidarity where common interests exist. NCC believes organizations can accomplish more when mechanisms exist to communicate efficiently, share knowledge, support important initiatives, and collaborate where missions intersect.

The National Cancer Collective therefore extends a simple invitation to the cancer advocacy community: Come to the table. Bring your expertise, your mission, your experiences, and your voice.

NCC extends its sincere appreciation to FORCE and Lisa Schlager for joining this early conversation and to MBCGA for helping open the door. One meeting does not build a national collective. But one meeting can begin a relationship—and enough relationships can build a movement.