Don’t wait to get screened

​ACS teams up with leading health groups to urge people to resume cancer screening and treatment.

The American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) are teaming up with a coalition of 76 organizations to urge the public to resume recommended cancer screenings.

Hospitals and health systems across the country have implemented numerous infection control measures to provide a safe environment for people to receive important medical care during the pandemic. Cancer hasn’t stopped due to COVID-19, and neither should cancer screenings.

This effort is part of a larger initiative by ACS to encourage people to return to screening, and includes a multi-faceted outreach strategy:

• An open letter reminds the public that cancer still poses a major threat to people’s health, and that acting as soon as is safely possible can lead to much better outcomes. The letter is posted on www.acs4ccc.org. There, you will also find a return to cancer screening and treatment fact sheet.
• A satellite media tour took place on Jan. 28 featuring Laura Makaroff, DO, our SVP, prevention and early detection, and leaders from NCCN and the CDC. More than 30 television and radio outlets across the country were scheduled to participate, including outlets in Dallas-Fort Worth, Raleigh, Sacramento, New Orleans, and Seattle, as well as a radio interview with News Around America, which airs on 210 stations nationwide.
• A press release is posted to our pressroom on cancer.org: pressroom.cancer.org.
• Social media promotion took place on ACS Masterbrand Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. @ACSNews tweeted about it, and CEO Gary Reedy and Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Bill Cance posted about it on LinkedIn.

What staff and volunteers can do 

Support our enterprise priority of helping people return to screening safely by sharing any of the materials noted above on local and/or regional social media.  

Encouraging people to return to screening is one of our organization’s top priorities this year, and we are building a comprehensive implementation plan to support this effort. In the coming weeks, we’ll have more information and resources to share, along with guidance for staff across the enterprise. 

*Shared from MySocietySource.