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Q&A

CM Narcisse on cancer screening and Healthy NYC goals

New York City Council · Jun 5, 2026 · starts 1:16:49 · 2 min 25 sec

Councilmember Narcisse asks about cancer-related services and the Healthy NYC goal to reduce screenable cancer deaths by 20% by 2030. Martin describes hotspot mapping for targeted resource delivery and a recent advertising campaign on alcohol's impact on cancer risk.

Mercedes Narcisse

Thank you, good morning.

Mercedes Narcisse

Thank you for being here, Commissioner and the team.

Mercedes Narcisse

During the Council Women's Caucus meeting, we had last month, we discussed cancer-related services provided to New Yorkers.

Mercedes Narcisse

As we know, one of the Healthy New York NYC goals is to reduce deaths.

Mercedes Narcisse

due to screenable cancers, including lung, breast, and colon cancer, cervical cancer, and prostate by 20% by 2030.

Mercedes Narcisse

Is any of the funding contracted out to CBOs, and what efforts are you putting in place to reduce cancer-related death, including programming and marketing campaign?

Dr. Alistair Martin

Yeah, thank you very much for that question, Council Member.

Dr. Alistair Martin

We, as part of Healthy NYC, as you've stated, have a goal to reduce the deaths of folks who have screenable cancers.

Dr. Alistair Martin

One of the things that we are avidly exploring is trying to identify, first of all,

Dr. Alistair Martin

not just where the deaths are happening and sort of identifying the, let's call them hotspot areas,

Dr. Alistair Martin

but now also trying to identify where are the resources that we're deploying to make sure that we're doing more of this targeted resource delivery.

Dr. Alistair Martin

And we're really excited about this new phase of Healthy NYC, which will be, you know, really a focus in a doubling down on each one of those drivers, but also making sure that the resource that's targeting a driver, like in this case, screenable cancers,

Dr. Alistair Martin

is really targeted at the areas where we're seeing the most need and the highest number of deaths.

Dr. Alistair Martin

To your question of the advertising campaigns, yes.

Dr. Alistair Martin

We actually just ran a very successful advertising campaign.

Dr. Alistair Martin

And campaign over the course of the last month, focusing on the intersection between alcohol and its impact on increasing cancer risk, which many individuals don't know.

Dr. Alistair Martin

And so trying to make sure that individuals have the information and the education they need to make the right decisions in their lives.

Mercedes Narcisse

Thank you.

Mercedes Narcisse

And one of my problems with colon cancer, this is one of the preventable cancers.

Mercedes Narcisse

We should not be having people dying with colon cancer.