ASPO Abstracts
The San Francisco Cancer Initiative: SF CAN
Category: Cancer Health Disparities, Behavioral Science & Health Communication
Conference Year: 2018
Abstract Body:
The potential for reducing the cancer burden and cancer disparities through prevention is great but unrealized at the population level. An estimated 50-60% of cancers could be prevented if what we currently know about cancer prevention could be put into practice. Furthermore, inequities in cancer outcomes can only be reduced if prevention activities are delivered to populations at greatest need. An integrated approach is needed to implement effective interventions across multiple health systems, involving numerous stakeholders and targeting the most common cancers. A new community-based coalition, the San Francisco Cancer Initiative (SF CAN), was launched in 2016 focused on the City and County of San Francisco where cancer is the number one cause of mortality. The goal of this implementation project is to reduce the cancer burden and cancer disparities through an integrated, cross-sector effort involving the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the University of California, San Francisco, major health systems and community coalitions to have “collective impact”. SF CAN targets the top five cancers for which there are proven methods of prevention: breast, prostate, lung and other tobacco-related cancers, colorectal, and liver cancer. SF CAN is theory driven and follows the PRECEDE-PROCEED model of population behavior change with logic models to identify milestones of success, while aligning with existing activities and community goals. We describe the city’s cancer burden and the SF CAN infrastructure, coalition building, and its first year of progress.
Keywords: Cancer disparities, Implementation science, community engagement