Cancer Research Advocacy Group
Connecting the Patient Perspective & Research
The Cancer Research Advocacy Group (CRAG) provides a vital perspective in the fight against cancer. Survivors, patients, family members, and other advocates can offer input into fundamental research. This work creates bench-to-bedside and bedside-to-bench feedback, putting patient perspectives at the heart of everything Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) researchers do. CRAG members include a diverse group of cancer survivors and individuals with a strong personal connection to cancer.
The Cancer Research Advocacy Group introduced a new online seminar series in 2025 that provides practical resources, address survivorship challenges, and foster collaboration to improve outcomes and guide future patient education and research efforts.
History
The Cancer Research Advocacy Group (CRAG) was founded in 2015 by CCIL members Zeynep Madak-Erdogan and Erik Nelson. Both were individually working with cancer research advocates and founded CRAG to encourage other researchers to incorporate the patient perspective into cancer research.
The group meets regularly to discuss cancer experiences, provide a patient/survivor outlook to researchers, and organize community-wide seminars.
Susan Leggett joined as a co-faculty leader of the group in 2023.
Leadership and Contact
Erik Nelson
Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Susan Leggett
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
For more information about CRAG or to learn about how you can become a cancer advocate, please contact Erik Nelson.
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