Mammography missed high proportion of breast cancer in Mexican-American women

Data from the ongoing multicenter Ella Binational Breast Cancer Study suggest that despite a high rate of mammography screening reported by Mexican-American women a high percentage of breast cancer is not being detected using this method.

The data were presented yesterday at a press conference at the AACR 2009 Science of Cancer Health Disparities meeting.

Researchers from the University of Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston used data from the U.S. population of the study to assess the relationship between education level, acculturation and breast cancer screening behaviors. The study included 230 women of Mexican descent with breast cancer. Study participants were aged 40 years or older and resided in Texas (n=138) or Arizona (n=92).

Data indicated self-detection was the most common method of breast cancer detection (67%), followed by mammography (23%), clinical examination (6%) or other methods (3%).

source: HemOnc today