Researchers said in a statement released Sunday that although there are numerous programs across the country providing free breast cancer screening there is no unified system to give diagnostic services when a breast abnormality is found.
"It is important that women undergo appropriate diagnostic studies as soon as they receive an abnormal breast cancer screening, but it takes much more coordination than we ever expected," Frances M. Palmieri, M.S.N., clinical manager of Mayo's Multidisciplinary Breast Clinic, said in the statement.
Barriers to coordinating diagnosis and treatment for cancer to underserved women include the fact that many of them don't have a telephone or address not even a temporary one such as a battered women's shelter. In addition, many uninsured women don't have cars and most of the clinics were not accessible by public transportation.
Mayo's Breast Clinic tried to solve the problem of a lack of transportation there by asking Jacksonville city officials to begin bus service to the clinic.
For the study, Mayo worked with health departments in four counties around the clinic that referred women with abnormal mammograms. Of the 447 women referred through 2006, "65 percent were white, 21 percent were black, and 11 percent were Hispanic," with a mean age of 49.7 years.
Of 893 diagnostic mammograms and ultrasounds while 90 percent of the detected abnormalities were benign, 38 cancers were diagnosed, of which 76 percent were invasive carcinoma that needed immediate treatment.
During the study, Mayo was able to get the treatment time for the women down from a delay of several months to less than 36 days. That is less than the 60 days that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established as the maximum amount of time to begin treatment for cancer, researchers said in the statement.
