Crushing Cancer Through Community Outreach

Madhurya Amirapu, MD, Co-Chair of the Communities Crushing Cancer Taskforce 2025 & Co-Chief Radiology Resident at Saint Vincent Hospital, MA, contributed this piece.

In August 2023, radiology residents across Massachusetts received an email from then Resident and Fellow Section leaders, Somiah Almeky, MD, and Liz Lin, MD, looking for radiology residents interested in serving as liaisons for a growing initiative — Communities Crushing Cancer (CCC). What started as a onetime tabling event, CCC is now a national, resident-led grassroots initiative focused on raising public awareness for breast, lung and colon cancer screening. The evidence supporting screening is overwhelming, yet it remains underutilized. CCC’s goal is simple: to meet people where they are and start conversations about screening that can lead to lifesaving exams.

As radiologists, a large part of our daily work revolves around diagnosing, staging, and restaging cancers. We play a central role in cancer screening, from low-dose CTs to mammograms and beyond. Yet, it is easy to feel removed from the human impact of our work when we spend most of our day behind a screen. CCC offers radiology residents a chance to take part in the work we’re already doing in a more visible, personal and community-centered way.

During my first CCC event, I was pleasantly surprised by how positive the experience and feedback was. My co-residents and I agreed that while the event was simple in design, from handing out easy-to-read brochures and answering sincere questions from patients like “Who are radiologists?” and “What exactly is cancer?”. I found the experience both empowering and genuinely enjoyable. One resident from another institution even said it was their favorite day in training so far, because it gave them the feeling of being part of something larger than their own program. From my own experience and in conversations with other participants, what stood out after the event was the fulfillment we felt.

Inspired, I joined the CCC national taskforce the following year as Innovation Team Lead. After months of planning, we were thrilled to see the initiative grow from 8 residency programs and 68 participating residents in 2023 to over 50 programs and nearly 250 residents in 2024. We’re excited to see where it goes next, and more importantly, how many more patients we can reach. 

CCC’s strength lies in its simplicity and scalability. Each institution can customize its outreach, but what unites all participants is the shared belief that we can help save more lives through routine cancer screening.

Thank you to everyone that participated in Communities Crushing Cancer on October 29. We are grateful to everyone who has supported us till now and couldn’t have come this far without the dedication of our incredible liaisons and the support of the Radiology Health Equity Coalition. Join our team next year and together, we can crush cancer!