Cancer Screening: Patient Navigation Services to Increase Breast, Cervical, and Colorectal Cancer Screenings and Advance Health Equity, Updated July 2026

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Cancer: Patient Navigation Services to Increase Breast, Cervical, and Colorectal Cancer Screenings and Advance Health Equity: Community Preventive Services Task Force Finding and Rationale Statement Ratified July 2022; Updated July 2026
• Corporate Authors:
  Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF)
• Description:
  Context: Screenings for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers, combined with appropriate follow-up, diagnosis and treatment, can reduce cancer mortality, and in some cases reduce cancer incidence (USPSTF 2016 [https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/breast-cancer-screening], 2018 [https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/cervical-cancer-screening], 2021 [https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/colorectal-cancer-screening]). In 2018, cancer screening rates in the United States were below the Healthy People 2020 targets, and Healthy People 2030 [https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/cancer/increase-proportion-adults-who-get-screened-colorectal-cancer-c-07] adjusted their targets based on 2018 data. Rates were even lower among people from historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups, people who qualified for Medicaid, and people who did not have health insurance (Sabatino et al. 2021). Identifying and expanding the use of evidence-based interventions to increase screening could help reduce some of these screening disparities.
  
  Patient navigation services aim to eliminate barriers and promote access to timely diagnosis and treatment of cancer (Freeman et al. 2011). These services guide patients through a healthcare system from screening through all phases of cancer treatment (Freeman et al. 2011). Barriers may be financial or structural, or they may be related to communication or access to information (CDC 2021). Barriers may also include patients' mistrust of the healthcare system or fear of possible cancer diagnoses (CDC 2021 [https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/php/interventions/patient-navigation.html]; Freeman et al. 2011).
  
  The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) findings and recommendations for "Cancer Screening: Patient Navigation Services to Increase Breast, Cervical, and Colorectal Cancer Screenings and Advance Health Equity" are based on systematic reviews of evidence of effectiveness and economic impact. All CPSTF findings and recommendations were originally published in The Community Guide.
  
  The 2022 Findings and Rationale Statement was updated in July 2026. This update includes the addition of these supporting document appendices: Appendix A: Analytic Framework (Effectiveness Review); Appendix B: Search Strategy (Effectiveness Review); Appendix C: Included Studies - Breast Cancer (Effectiveness Review); Appendix D: Included Studies - Cervical Cancer (Effectiveness Review); Appendix E: Included Studies - Colorectal Cancer (Effectiveness Review); Appendix F: Summary Evidence Table - Breast Cancer (Effectiveness Review); Appendix G: Summary Evidence Table - Cervical Cancer (Effectiveness Review); Appendix H: Summary Evidence Table - Colorectal Cancer (Effectiveness Review); Appendix I: Analytic Framework (Economic Review); Appendix J: Search Strategy (Economic Review); Appendix K: Included Studies - Breast and Cervical Cancers (Economic Review); Appendix L: Included Studies - Colorectal Cancer (Economic Review); Appendix M: Summary Evidence Table - Breast and Cervical Cancers (Economic Review); Appendix N: Summary Evidence Table - Colorectal Cancer (Economic Review).
  
  
• Subjects:
  Breast Neoplasms Colorectal Neoplasms Early Detection Of Cancer Early Diagnosis Health Care Costs Health Education Health Inequities Neoplasms Patient Navigation Uterine Cervical Neoplasms
• Keywords:
  Breast Cancer Cancer Screening Cervical Cancer Colorectal Cancer
• Series:
  CPSTF Finding and Rationale Statement
• Subseries:
  Cancer
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/168661
• Publisher:
  Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (U.S.)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Rights:
  Public Domain
• CIO:
  Office of Science (OS)
• Topic:
  Diseases and Conditions
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  123 pdf pages
• Citation:
  The Community Preventive Service Task Force (CPSTF). Cancer Screening: Patient Navigation Services to Increase Breast, Cervical, and Colorectal Cancer Screenings and Advance Health Equity, Updated 2026. The Community Guide [www.thecommunityguide.org]. The Community Preventive Service Task Force, Atlanta, Georgia, 2026. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/168661
• Collection(s):
  The Community Guide
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e5eadbd83e623e9ba04da1eacca09afc05c214da8f3daed96cda7b0768b3381c8bf5575f36795412efa071411cff59d146a0f2a7ccf85a6307a5456e702bf1f7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/168661/cdc_168661_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.46 MB ]