Bush, Wooldridge, Foster, et al. Breast and cervical cancer screening varies by age among black and Hispanic women. This study found that elderly black and Hispanic women are less likely to be screened for breast and cervical cancer than their younger counterparts. The women, who were 65 years of age and older, were 21 percent less likely than younger women to have ever had a Pap smear. Older age also was an independent but weaker predictor of clinical breast examination.
Physician compassion reduces anxiety in women newly diagnosed with breast cancer.
Researchers recruited 123 healthy breast cancer survivors and 87 women who had not had cancer and showed half of each group of women a standard videotape of two treatment options for metastatic cancer. Anxiety scores were significantly lower for women in the enhanced compassion group. Disadvantages of poverty impede access to appropriate breast care. For 24 urban poor and low-income women, the lack of insurance was one factor impeding access to and creating difficulties with receiving appropriate breast cancer care. Additionally, the disadvantages of poverty that preceded and followed a diagnosis of breast cancer created significant delays and compromised the diagnosis, treatment, recovery, and perhaps survival of the women.