Some key components of comprehensive cancer control plans include the development of goals, objectives and strategies to address the cancer burden within the state, tribal organization or territory. These goals, objectives and strategies can help spur collaboration between partners. Goals are typically broad statements that delineate the purposes of the cancer plan itself. Objectives are specific, measurable statements of what needs to be done to achieve corresponding goals. Implementing evidence-based strategies at the community, clinic, provider and or patient-level are critical to helping meet these objectives and subsequently meeting proposed goals.
There are two key resources available that comprehensive cancer control programs, coalitions and partners can use to identify proven strategies and interventions to address cancer across the continuum from prevention to survivorship, with a particular focus on prevention and screening:
- The Community Guide: This resource describes how the Community Preventive Services Task Force has assessed strategies to increase the use of preventive services and positive health behaviors, including cancer-relevant services and behaviors such as cancer screening, sunscreen use, HPV vaccination and tobacco cessation. Potential strategies are reviewed by the Task Force and determined to be either not recommended, insufficient evidence or recommended.
- The National Cancer Institute’s Evidence-Based Cancer Control Programs: This resource is a searchable database to provide public health practitioners with access to programs to address several areas of cancer control, ranging from HPV vaccination to tobacco control to cancer screening to survivorship care. The database also allows users to filter by community type (e.g., rural) and delivery location (e.g., clinic or community). For each program, program materials, implementation guides and other information are available. Additionally, each program has been assessed based on the research integrity, intervention impact and dissemination capabilities as well as in accordance with the RE-AIM framework which assesses reach, effectiveness, adoption and implementation.
During a webinar from the Geographic Health Equity Alliance in partnership with the Advancing Cancer and Rural Equity (ACRE) lab, three presenters discussed different ways in which evidence-based strategies have been implemented to improve cancer screening in rural areas. Dr. Jan Eberth presented a project which assessed the feasibility of implementing evidence-based strategies from the Community Guide for colorectal cancer screening in South Carolina Rural Health Clinics. This work culminated in the development of an online toolkit to help Rural Health Clinics implement these strategies in their clinics. Dr. Jamie Studts presented on efforts to implement lung cancer screening in Kentucky through the Kentucky Leads Collaborative which focuses on lung cancer education, awareness, detection and survivorship through community engagement. Additionally, Andrea Dwyer, director of the Colorado Colorectal Cancer Screening Program, presented on the efforts of the program in rural Colorado. The full webinar can be seen below:
Whitney Zahnd
Whitney Zahnd, PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Iowa's Department of Health Management and Policy and full member of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research employs health services research, social epidemiological, and spatial methods to address rural cancer disparities across the cancer continuum and to evaluate access to health care services. She has a particular interest in reducing cancer disparities among rural minority populations. Dr. Zahnd serves on the board of the Iowa Rural Health Association.