Patrick Dempsey, best known for playing neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd in Grey’s Anatomy, is shifting focus to general oncology in a new ad campaign by Guardant Health urging Americans to get screened early for colorectal cancer.
The campaign, titled “The Reckoning,” features a somber tribute video memorializing those who have died of colorectal cancer in recent years and states that 55,000 more Americans will lose their lives to colorectal cancer this year. This is Guardant’s first campaign of such a scale: a national, multi-million dollar effort that is running across major cable, streaming, and digital platforms as of Monday.
In the ad spot, Dempsey faces a wall of names and ages of people who have died of colorectal cancer, some as young as 49. The actor and cancer advocate goes on to explain that getting screened for colorectal cancer from the age of 45 onwards can change the prognosis, as these cancers are significantly more treatable if caught early.
Colorectal cancer is now the second-leading cause of cancer death in the US, making this moment “a critical inflection point” for screening with Shield™, Steve Murphy, vp of marketing at Guardant Health told ADWEEK.
“Despite decades of access to other screening tests, more than 54 million Americans remain overdue for screening,” Murphy wrote in an email to ADWEEK. “What’s more, colorectal cancer rates are rising among younger adults and it is now the leading cause of cancer death for those under 50.”
Guardant introduced Shield™, a blood test for colorectal cancer detection, in 2022. For a medical specialty that usually requires a colonoscopy to screen for cancer, the development was revolutionary.
In 2024, the Food and Drug Administration officially approved Shield™ as the first blood test to qualify as a primary screening option for colorectal cancer. More recently, the American Cancer Society updated its colorectal cancer screening guidelines to include the Shield™ blood test, Murphy told ADWEEK.
Now the leading blood test for colorectal cancer detection, Shield™ is “helping to remove the barriers that have historically kept people from getting screened,” Murphy added.
Guardant first announced its partnership with Dempsey in March, sharing a video of the actor getting screened with Shield™ across digital channels. Dempsey’s cancer advocacy dates back to 2008, when he founded the Dempsey Center, a holistic care center for people impacted by cancer. At the time, his mother was battling ovarian cancer. She died of the illness in 2014. Since then, Dempsey has continued to raise awareness for cancer research and screenings, and he was even named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Oncology by OncoDaily last year.
