Genentech/Roche is one of the world’s leading-edge cancer care companies. Aligning with our purpose, we felt a responsibility to ensure our employees and their family members have access to advanced science and personalized care when receiving a cancer diagnosis.
As the COVID-19 pandemic intensified in 2020, cancer screening rates decreased significantly. Compared to 2019, screenings for breast, colorectal and prostate cancer declined sharply from March through May of 2020 with the sharpest decline occurring in April.1
As a leader in cancer care, we harnessed our business and employee resources to respond to this decline in screening rates and encourage our employees to return to care. Genentech actively promoted the importance of screenings through existing cancer awareness events, such as Colon Cancer Awareness Month in March. For lung cancer, which typically has low screening rates,2 we leveraged the Screen Your Lungs awareness campaign to add lung cancer screening awareness to our communication strategy.
To further encourage screenings, Genentech launched an incentive program rewarding employees up to $500 and spouses/domestic partners up to $300 annually for completing healthy activities, such as yearly physicals and cancer screenings. In addition, Genentech launched a campaign in the summer of 2021 called Move Your Health Forward, an outreach to Genentech employees to encourage annual appointments and screenings.
These efforts to drive employee ownership of their health have successfully resulted in a 36% increase in annual wellness exams from 2021 to 2022.3 We continue to monitor our progress and explore new means to improve screening rates so that we can provide the best possible cancer care for all our employees and their families.
References: 1. Chen RC, Haynes K, Du S, Barron J, Katz AJ. Association of cancer screening deficit in the United States with the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Oncol. 2021;7(6):878-884. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.0884 2. New report: critically low lung cancer screening rates reveal opportunity to save more lives. News release. American Lung Association; November 15, 2022. Accessed May 1, 2023. https://www.lung.org/media/press-releases/state-of- lung-cancer-2022#:~:text=The%202022%20%E2%80%9CState%20of%20Lung,rates%20as%20low%20as%201%25 3. Data on file, Genentech Inc.