Abstract P3-04-01: Information availability about screening for high-risk breast cancer on cancer center websites
Authors: Jaspreet Singh Batra, Elizabeth Park, Arjun Gupta
Journal: Cancer Research (2022)

Abstract Background: Radiology and oncology clinical guidelines recommend that people with high-risk of breast cancer should be offered screening with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Rates of appropriate screening remain low, which could also be related to patient awareness and knowledge about optimal screening modalities/schedules. Appropriate screening is even more critical for African-American women, in whom there are higher rates of genetic mutations (e.g., BRCA) conferring a greater risk of high-risk breast cancer. Southern United States (US) states have a higher proportion of African-American women. We sought to explore the availability of information on high-risk breast cancer screening using breast MRI across the websites of the top 20 cancer centers in the US (as per US News data) as well as the top US News cancer center in each of 5 representative southern US states where the average annual breast cancer-related death rate is greater than 20 per 100,000 people, age adjusted to the 2000 US standard population. Methods:We utilized publicly available data from the 2020-2021 US News website to identify top 20 cancer centers. We performed a google search using two separate keyword phrases (“high-risk breast cancer screening” and “breast MRI”), and the name of the cancer center. US News 2020-21 online ranking data was also used to identify the top cancer center in each of the five representative US states (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina) and a similar search methodology was adopted for these five cancer centers. We then reviewed each cancer center’s website(s) and webpages to ascertain the availability of information regarding the availability of specific high-risk breast cancer clinic/programs and specific information on screening with breast MRI. Results: Of the top 20 US cancer centers, 15 (75%) have an established high-risk breast cancer clinic/program per their website. Two (2/15) of these cancer centers only had a general high-risk cancer assessment/genetics clinic and two (2/15) had no additional information available about the high-risk clinics. Information on high-risk factors was available on 12/20 (60%) websites. Seventeen centers (85%) included information on breast MRI, but only 8 (40%) had patient-centered detailed information on breast MRI for high-risk patients and 4 (20%) centers included an online, personalized, risk assessment tool. Among the top cancer center in each of the 5 representative Southern states, only 1 (20%) had information regarding a high-risk breast cancer evaluation program. While 4 (80%) had information on breast MRI information, there was no specific information available for high risk screening. Conclusions: These findings underscore the unmet need of easy access to online information from the websites of the top cancer centers nationally as well as the top state level cancer centers in the five representative southern US states for women with high risk of developing breast cancer. These limitations are particularly relevant for African-American women living in the South. Limitations of this study include the cross-sectional assessment of online data and that discrepancies may exist between websites and actual availability of clinical services. Citation Format: Jaspreet Singh Batra, Elizabeth Park, Arjun Gupta. Information availability about screening for high-risk breast cancer on cancer center websites [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-04-01.