Soon it will be possible for twice as many underserved women to be screened for breast cancer because of a grant to Dione Farria, M.D., and Katherine Jahnige Mathews, M.D., of the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
A grant from the Avon Foundation, an independent 501(c)3 founded by Avon Products Inc. in 1955, will fund the purchase of digital mammography equipment for a mammography van. The van will travel to Missouri regions with a high prevalence of breast cancers detected at an advanced stage. Patients will benefit from the digital technology, which has been shown to improve cancer detection over conventional film-based mammography in some women.
“We are tremendously excited about this opportunity to expand our outreach efforts in these areas,” says Mathews, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, who will head the initiative with Farria, assistant professor of radiology. “The grant makes it possible for us to do so much more to improve access to breast cancer screenings.”
Using mammography vans to bring screening services to patients has proven especially important for rural women, who would otherwise need to drive a long way to a hospital, and to uninsured women, who might not seek out the service on their own. Program organizers aim to screen about 4,000 underserved women per year, double the number currently reached.
The van will serve the St. Louis inner city, Southeast Missouri Bootheel and rural counties surrounding the St. Louis metro area, regions with significant disparities in access to breast cancer care. Mammography screening rates in these areas are below the state average.
A geographic cluster in north St. Louis City and County has been found to have an increased prevalence of advanced breast cancer—women there were twice as likely as others in the state to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. Lack of access to breast cancer screening contributes to this situation.
Rural Missouri women also suffer from lack of access to mammography, and the Bootheel region recently lost an important medical resource when its only mammography van was taken out of service.
Digital mammography can detect breast cancer better than conventional film-based mammography in women under 50, women who are premenopausal and perimenopausal and women with dense breast tissue. Program organizers estimate that at least half of the women in their target population will fall into one or more of these key groups.
Digital mammogram images will be interpreted by the radiology team in Washington University’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology.
Farria is a breast imaging radiologist at the Institute who sees patients at the Joanne Knight Breast Health Center, and Mathews is a gynecologist at ConnectCare, part of the St. Louis region’s health-care safety net. Together they codirect Siteman’s Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD). PECaD oversees outreach programs at Siteman and monitors Siteman’s research, clinical and policy initiatives with an eye toward improving access and funding for underserved and minority patients.
Washington University School of Medicine’s full-time and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked third in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
Established in 1930, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) serves as the Department of Radiology for Washington University School of Medicine and is one of the most scientifically and technologically advanced radiology centers in the world. MIR physicians and scientists are members of the School of Medicine faculty.
Siteman Cancer Center is the only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center within a 240-mile radius of St. Louis. Siteman Cancer Center is composed of the combined cancer research and treatment programs of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.
The Avon Foundation is an accredited 501(c)(3) public charity founded in 1955 to improve the lives of women and their families. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Avon Foundation brings this mission to life through two key areas: breast cancer and women’s empowerment, including economic advancement and the issue of domestic violence. In the fight against breast cancer, the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade has raised more than $350 million worldwide for access to care and finding a cure. For the issue of domestic violence, the Avon Foundation launched the new Speak Out Against Domestic Violence initiative in 2004 to support awareness, education, direct services and prevention programs. For more information on the Avon Foundation visit www.avonfoundation.org.