How CDC Works Toward Equity in Cancer Prevention and Control

CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control works toward a world in which everyone is free of cancer. Through research, programmes and partnerships, it aims to make cancer prevention and care fairer across groups of people. Its work includes:

• finding out how aware groups with higher cancer rates are of their risk;
• giving people who are medically underserved and have low incomes access to screening;
• studying the costs of preventive care and cancer treatment;
• studying why some people cannot prevent cancer, find it early or get treated.

Teaching people about risk

Knowing your risk of cancer lets you take steps to lower it. Many things raise the risk, among them:

• exposure to tobacco smoke, and drinking alcohol;
• an unhealthy diet or too little physical activity;
• a family history of cancer;
• getting older.

The division runs three public health campaigns, using survivors' stories, interactive simulations, public service announcements, printed materials and more to teach people, including those at higher risk, about cancer symptoms and how to lower their risk:

• Screen for Life: National Colorectal Cancer Action Campaign tells men and women aged 45 and over why regular colorectal cancer screening matters.
• Inside Knowledge About Gynecologic Cancer raises awareness of the five main cancers that affect only women: cervical, ovarian, uterine, vaginal and vulvar.
• Bring Your Brave gives women under 45 information about breast cancer, with a focus on young survivors.

Getting more people screened

Screening means checking for cancer before there are symptoms. Tests can find cervical, colorectal, breast and lung cancers early, when treatment works best. The division's programmes aim to raise screening among groups more likely to get cancer or die of it.

• The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program has provided more than 15 million breast and cervical screening tests to more than 6 million women with low incomes and no or too little insurance, and has diagnosed more than 71,000 breast cancers and 4,800 cervical cancers.
• The Colorectal Cancer Control Program works with health systems to adopt and strengthen ways of raising colorectal screening, especially among the groups most at risk.
• The National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program promotes fair access to good, affordable screening, treatment and care.

What is next

Health equity is a focus of the division's research and programmes. Under CDC's CORE Health Equity Science and Intervention Strategy, it has two goals:

• By September 30, 2026, to work with three funded partners who will engage local and community organisations to find ways to narrow differences in cancer rates and cancer deaths between racial and ethnic groups.
• By 2026, for the breast and cervical cancer programme to raise the share of the women it serves who are overdue for cervical screening from 20 percent to 35 percent — helping more women from racial and ethnic minority groups, which have higher rates of cervical cancer.

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, "What CDC Is Doing to Achieve Equity in Cancer Control," February 13, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/health-equity/what-cdc-is-doing.html