For its success in advancing cancer prevention and early detection efforts across the state, the University of Colorado Cancer Center’s Colorado Cancer Screening Program (CCSP) has been named the American Cancer Society (ACS) 2024 Colorado State Partner of the Year.
“Your leadership in promoting equitable access to colorectal cancer screening has made a measurable difference in the lives of Coloradans — particularly in rural and underserved communities where barriers to care are often most pronounced,” Allie Bain, associate director of state partnerships for the ACS, said in her notification letter to the CCSP.
“Over the past year, your team has been a driving force behind meaningful collaboration and intervention implementation that is closing screening gaps, expanding provider education, and elevating the importance of early detection through patient-centered strategies. Together, we have seen progress that would not have been possible without your vision and commitment.”
Founded in 2006, the CCSP partners with local, state, and national clinical and community organizations to navigate Coloradans — particularly rural and medically underserved populations — to screening for colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and more recently, gastric cancer.
“Our partnerships with organizations such as the ACS are pivotal to ensuring all available resources to support colorectal cancer prevention and early detection are distributed to the clinic systems and eligible individuals most in need,” says Elsa Staples, senior program manager for the CCSP. “Thanks to the hard work of our clinic partners on implementing evidence-based interventions including patient navigation, patient and provider reminders, and patient education, we are seeing many successes in increasing colorectal cancer screening rates, but there is much more work to be done.”
That work includes expanding the mission of the CCSP beyond colorectal cancer. The program is working with CU Cancer Center experts Jamie Studts, PhD, Betsy Risendal, PhD, and Sachin Wani, MD — director of the Katy O. and Paul M. Rady Esophageal and Gastric Center of Excellence — to look at how it can increase screening rates for lung cancer, genetic and hereditary cancers, and gastric cancer, respectively.
“We're not going to stop with colon and rectal cancer, but given that our screening rates have been substantially higher, we've seen incidents and mortality rates drop,” says CCSP executive director Andrea Dwyer, PhD. “What we're hoping to do now is translate what we've learned with some of our additional subject matter experts, like Sachin and Jamie, to think about how we can move the dial for esophageal and gastric cancer and lung cancer. How do we grow the prevention culture, especially with lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer death?”
As a native Coloradan who grew up on a farm on the eastern plains, Dwyer knows how important it is for the CCSP to reach all parts of the state, particularly those with the highest needs.
“We use data to look at things like, where are screening rates the lowest? Where is poverty and lack of insurance the highest? Where do we see the highest rates?” Dwyer says. “If we see gaps where we don’t have identified partners with us, or with ACS, we go in and try to hit those areas and talk to these clinics as well as the primary care groups, to say, ‘How can we help?’”
Once those relationships are established, Dwyer says, it’s important to strengthen and deepen the connection, striving for authenticity.
“It's a cultural experience — getting into these communities, having them understand who we are, the work that we're doing,” she says. “It has taken years of hitting the pavement, meeting people where they are, making sure our grant applications are coming in based on the need that's coming through. We've spent a lot of time doing that to have that reach. We are constantly reminded that no two clinics and communities are the same.”
The recognition of all that hard work is what makes the ACS Colorado State Partner of the Year award so meaningful, Dwyer says.
“The American Cancer Society being the largest and one of the most influential partners in all things cancer, it's a big deal to be able to be named officially as a partner in that way,” she says. “It's a tough time in research and public health and health care service delivery, so I'm honored. Forming long-lasting partnerships is not easy.”
Featured image: From left, CCSP leaders Andrea Dwyer, PhD, Elsa Staples, MPH, and Jo Henning, MPH, pose with their American Cancer Society awards.