NCCN Summit Puts Cancer Prevention and Screening at the Heart of Health Policy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) convened a two-day Oncology Policy Summit at the National Press Club on October 5 and 6, 2026, drawing together some of the most influential voices in American cancer control to confront a deceptively simple question: why do proven, life-saving prevention and screening strategies still fail to reach so many of the people who need them? The meeting, part of NCCN’s ongoing Oncology Policy Summit series, examined policy solutions operating at both the population and the individual level, with sustained attention to equity, innovation, and access. Keynote presentations came from Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, Director of the National Cancer Institute, and Captain Jacqueline Miller, MD, Acting Division Director of the CDC Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, alongside panels featuring patients, providers, payers, advocates, and health system leaders.

The urgency underlying the agenda was captured early by Chyke Doubeni, MD, MPH, Chief Health Equity Officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Established prevention and screening strategies, he told attendees, have the power to eliminate nearly half of all cancer deaths, yet barriers continue to prevent many Americans from accessing these opportunities. Doubeni warned that new screening technologies carry transformative potential for cancer detection, but that their value will not be realized equitably unless the fragmented delivery processes that risk deepening existing disparities are addressed. His framing set the tone for two days of discussion in which scientific optimism was repeatedly tempered by structural realism: the tools exist, the evidence exists, and the remaining challenge is one of delivery, coverage, and trust.

That tension between knowledge and access was echoed by Darcie Green, Executive Director of Latinas Contra Cancer, who argued that the field knows more than it ever has about preventing cancer, lowering risk, and finding disease earlier, but that too much distance remains between what is known and what people can actually access and benefit from. Green called for closing that distance by bringing excellent care and patient navigation within reach and by engaging patients and communities in shaping the systems meant to serve them. Jody Hoyos, MHA, Chief Executive Officer of the Prevent Cancer Foundation, described how rapidly the paradigm is shifting: cancer prevention is no longer only about avoiding risk, she said, but about using better science, smarter screening, and earlier detection to find cancer before it becomes life-threatening. She added a practical caveat that resonated through the meeting—patients are demanding less invasive and more accessible options, and uptake will only improve if the field responds to that demand.

Day one of the summit focused on broad, population-level strategies, spanning public health infrastructure, tobacco cessation, vaccines against cancer-causing infections, emerging blood-based tests, and artificial intelligence-driven efficiencies in screening programs. Speakers emphasized that these interventions, deployed at scale, represent the clearest near-term opportunity to bend the cancer mortality curve. Mishellene McKinney, MHA, RN, OCN, Vice President of Clinical Programs at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, offered an integrated delivery perspective, explaining that value-based care models can proactively engage people in prevention and screening through personalized outreach and evidence-based approaches. As both health plan and care provider, Kaiser Permanente, she said, recognizes preventing cancer as a critical part of overall care and is committed to making screening more accessible, equitable, and effective for members and surrounding communities.

The second day shifted to system-level solutions for meeting individual screening needs, particularly among higher-risk populations. Discussions covered hereditary risk assessment, follow-up diagnostics after abnormal findings, out-of-pocket costs, and continuity of care across the full cancer journey. Lisa Schlager, Vice President of Public Policy for FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, stressed that cancer risk is not one-size-fits-all: age, family history, genetics, and environmental and lifestyle factors all shape an individual’s probability of disease. Screening and prevention strategies, she argued, should be tailored so patients receive the most appropriate care for their risk profile, and public policies must evolve so patients can access the right interventions at the right time—an approach she said would improve outcomes, save lives, and reduce healthcare costs simultaneously.

Continuity of care emerged as one of the summit’s most persistent themes. Brandon Leonard, MA, Vice President of Government Affairs at LUNGevity Foundation, identified the central systems challenge as ensuring that patients move seamlessly from initial screening through follow-up diagnostics, treatment, and survivorship care. From a policy standpoint, he called for eliminating access barriers by guaranteeing that screening and diagnostics are covered for all eligible patients without burdensome cost-sharing or utilization management requirements. Molly Guthrie of Susan G. Komen reinforced the point with a concrete legislative record: Komen’s Center for Public Policy has led the introduction of, and helped pass, dozens of state bills to remove barriers standing in the way of affordable, accessible breast imaging. Gaps remain, she cautioned, and laws must continue to evolve so that all patients can obtain the screening they need without financial burden—a goal requiring collective action at both state and federal levels.

Disparities in screening access and experience received pointed attention, including for communities often overlooked in mainstream cancer control conversations. Scout, PhD, Executive Director of The LGBTQIA+ Cancer Network, identified medical mistrust as one of the biggest screening barriers for LGBTQIA+ people, citing recent data showing that this barrier has grown notably worse for 75 percent of that population within the last 18 months. Simple, low-cost interventions—welcoming signage, inclusive badges, visible signals of affirmation—can counteract that mistrust, Scout argued, while medical offices that fail to take such steps actively perpetuate disparities. The observation underscored a recurring summit message: equity in cancer screening is built or lost in thousands of small, everyday clinical interactions, not only in federal legislation.

Genetic risk and the promise of precision prevention figured prominently as well. Tuya Pal, MD, a clinical geneticist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and Vice-Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Breast, Ovarian, and Pancreatic, emphasized that access after testing is what actually saves lives. People with inherited genes that elevate cancer risk have tremendous potential to benefit from screening, she noted, but it is not testing alone that improves outcomes—rather, it is accessing appropriate care based on the results. To reap the benefits of genetic testing, the field must ensure that all individuals can obtain recommended screening and preventive measures once a result is in hand. Her comments reframed the national conversation about expanding genetic testing, warning that testing capacity without downstream care is a hollow victory.

Speakers also grappled with how to translate accelerating scientific progress into practical, responsible care. Ernest Hawk, MD, MPH, Head of Cancer Prevention and Population Science at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, acknowledged that the science of cancer prevention and screening has advanced remarkably, and that translating that evidence into clinical tools for risk assessment, evidence-based screening programs, and practice standards has already helped save countless lives. Looking ahead to innovations such as multicancer detection tests moving closer to clinical practice, he urged balance: enthusiasm for their potential must be weighed against careful consideration of potential harms, costs, and implications for population health, until rigorous evidence demonstrates meaningful improvements in outcomes. Elisa M. Rodriguez, PhD, MS, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, added a patient-centered dimension from her own experience delivering cancer risk information: people do not simply want a risk score or percentage, she said—they want actionable information on what they can do to help protect themselves from developing cancer.

The summit also featured remarks from NCCN’s Chief Medical Officer, Renuka Iyer, MD, and Chief Scientific Officer, Nancy L. Lewis, MD, MBS, FACP, with panels moderated by Clifford Goodman, PhD, a consultant in health care technology and policy, and a series of presentations showcasing effective screening and prevention strategies in action. Attendees could pick up copies of the free NCCN Guidelines for Patients on screening and prevention—covering breast cancer screening and diagnosis, colorectal screening, genetic testing, lung cancer screening, and prostate cancer screening—all available in English and Spanish at NCCN.org/patients through funding from the NCCN Foundation. The organization’s next convening, the annual Patient Advocacy Summit on December 3, 2026, also in Washington, D.C., will turn to advancing family-centered cancer care, examining gaps in government support, awareness of assistance programs, and caregiver information. For a field that can already prevent roughly half of cancer deaths with tools in hand, the summit’s collective message was clear: the next frontier is not discovery, but delivery.

Subject of Research: Cancer prevention and screening policy, equity, and access discussed at the NCCN Oncology Policy Summit

Article Title: Cancer prevention and screening takes center stage during DCSummit convened by NCCN

Article References: Cancer prevention and screening takes center stage during DCSummit convened by NCCN. (n.d.). Original publication

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Keywords: NCCN, cancer prevention, cancer screening, health equity, National Cancer Institute, CDC, genetic testing, early detection, health policy, patient advocacy, multicancer detection tests, screening disparities