Preventing Tennesseans from getting cancer and helping ensure better treatment for those who do is the purpose of the Tennessee Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition (TC4), which last November unveiled its Tennessee Cancer Control Plan covering 2009 to 2012. The state's first plan, published in 2005, covered three years.

More than a decade ago, the federal government mandated that every state develop a plan, but no grant money came Tennessee's way until 2003. That's when the coalition, a collaborative group of organizations and citizens, kicked cancer awareness into high gear. TC4 Co-Chair Debbie Wujcik, RN, PhD, director of clinical trials at Meharry Medical Center, acknowledged that Tennessee lagged behind back then when it came to data collection for the Tennessee Cancer Registry. "It didn't meet credentialing standards, so our data wasn't included in the national report," she said. That's changed now, and the state's registry enjoys "gold status" with the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries. "By organizing ourselves and really advocating with the legislature and working with the state Department of Health," she said, "we not only increased the number of staff (working with the registry), but we worked with hospitals and pathology labs across the state to ensure that the data about cancer diagnoses were being submitted."

Follow the link to read more about the T4C, the 2009-2012 plan, and how to get involved.