Session F
CONFERENCE DAY 3 - SATURDAY, JUNE 7TH 2008 (9:45-10:45)
Concurrent Podium Presentations (Choice of 9):
1F Barriers Facing Black Women in Nova Scotia (31665) & Case Study in Black Women Living in the Greater Toronto Area (30313)
Ms. Iona G. Crawley - Sister to Sister (Canada), Ms. Rayonne D. Caesar- Chavannes & Ms. Leila Springer - The Olive Branch of Hope (Canada)
Barriers Facing Black Women in Nova Scotia: This lecture will present results from a study of Black Nova Scotian women with breast cancer. Nova Scotia is home to the largest Black population in Canada. Most of the Black communities are isolated in rural areas, with little access to breast health treatment & resources. 50% of all Black women diagnosed before 50 years of age, die within the first five years.
Findings from the study will be reviewed including: Black women need to receive adequate information in order to make informed decisions, mobile screening clinics need to travel to the rural communities, workshops and conference are needed on issues that pertain to women of African decent. Themes emerging from the study included a lack of sensitivity toward the breast health of Black women and the need for awareness of specific issues that relate to Black women and breast health. Policy makers, researchers, advocates and health care providers will be encouraged to learn how to involve more black women in clinical trails and research.
Case Study in Black Women Living in the Greater Toronto Area: Although African American women are diagnosed with breast cancer less often than white women, when they are diagnosed the disease is more likely to be aggressive and fatal. In fact, Black women and women of colour are 30% more likely to die from breast cancer. In addition to late diagnosis and higher mortality rates among Black women, a recent study, conducted by The Olive Branch of Hope, indicated that lack of cultural-specific information on breast cancer is a major factor.
Recommendations to reduce the 30% morbidity rate for women of colour, with breast cancer, will be presented. Cultural and language barriers will also be discussed. Of particular concern is the population of women of colour who have been in Canada for twenty years or more.
2F Socioeconomic Influences on Vietnamese-Canadian Women's Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention Practices (31523) & Implementation and Evaluation of a Lay Health Educator Breast Screening Program for South Asian Women (30643)
Ms. Julie Atkinson - Region of Peel - Public Health (Canada) & Dr. Tam Truong Donnelly - University of Calgary (Canada)
Socioeconomic Influences on Vietnamese-Canadian Women's Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention Practices: Breast cancer and cervical cancer are major contributors to morbidity and mortality for Vietnamese Canadian women. They face multiple barriers before obtaining effective preventive care and treatment for these diseases.
The presentation will include comment on the influence of socioeconomic factors on Vietnamese Canadian women's health care behaviours related to breast and cervical cancer screening. The study revealed that low socioeconomic status is a major barrier to women's participation in breast and cervical cancer screening, despite the fact that health care in Canada is funded by the publicly Medicare system.
The workshop will also discuss major dimensions through which socioeconomic issues were associated with Vietnamese women's access and use of health care for the prevention of breast and cervical cancer, including: (a) financial concerns; (b) language, occupational opportunities, and downward mobility; and (c) how low socioeconomic status affects cancer screening practices. Implications will be discussed regarding increasing Vietnamese-Canadian women's utilization of breast and cervical cancer screening services.
Implementation and Evaluation of a Lay Health Educator Breast Screening Program for South Asian Women: Literature suggests that South Asian women living in Canada are under-utilizing early detection strategies, such as screening. In response to this gap in service utilization, the Region of Peel Public Health (Ontario, Canada) conducted a literature review and community needs assessment. The findings were used in the development of the Lay Health Educator Breast Screening Program, aimed at South Asian women aged 50 and older.
Presenters of this session will describe details of the program, including program design, development and implementation (including developing and sustaining community partnerships), successes and challenges, evaluation activities, and findings to date. The audience will be encouraged to ask questions and share their experiences.
3F Squeeze Us In - Screening and Assessment Journey in NW Ontario (30977) & Building Aboriginal Community Capacity for Prevention Interventions (30545)
Ms. Raylene A. McGhee, Ms. J. Drainville & MaryaAnn Ginty - TBRHSC (Canada) & Ms. Katrina Carrera - Jane Mattinas Health Centre (Canada)
Squeeze Us In - Screening and Assessment Journey in NW Ontario: This session highlights a successful and innovative mobile breast screening program in Northwestern Ontario (Canada), an area approximately the size of France. Nurse examiners and mammography technologists are licensed to drive the coach and implement this regional program with the assistance of breast assessment, clerical, and support staff, along with management and reading radiologists.
The mobile breast screening team has become a leader in client retention for the province, with a rate of over 90%. Throughout its years of operation, it has implemented best practices in mobile screening delivery and assessment, and in partnership with others has initiated culturally appropriate regional strategies to increase access and participation rates for under-screened and never-screened populations.
In 2006, the mobile coach travelled 11,000 to 30 different communities. Members of the team will provide information and highlights of their experiences on the road, a quiz and a Q & A.
Building Aboriginal Community Capacity for Prevention Interventions: Using a case study, the session will share best practices and innovative strategies in Aboriginal program planning, implementation and evaluation that are applicable and useful to rural northern communities. Project activities that will be emphasized include: addressing facts and myths by delivering education seminars to local health staff, pilot testing of all written information and educational presentation by local staff and residents, participating in focus group sharing circles, disseminating information in Ojibway-Cree via the local radio station, promoting target group's participation in breast examinations by involving local health staffs participation, purchasing of visual and tactile teaching resources, visiting, of community residents to local diagnostic imaging services and cancer treatment ward.
Participants will have the opportunity to go through a checklist on their awareness and understanding of different components of culture that are essential when preparing breast cancer initiatives and programs in their communities.
4F Fat-to-muscle Ratio and Risk: A Case Control Study (30377)
Dr. Alvaro L. Ronco, Dr. H. Boeing, Dr. E. De Stefani - Facultad de Medicina, Centro Latinoamericano de Economia Humana (Uruguay)
Results will be presented on a case-control study in which a pioneering anthropometric methodology was used to assess fat to muscle ratio in incidences of breast cancer in Urugayan women. The study was carried out at the Instituto de Radiología y Centro de Lucha Contra el Cáncer, Pereira Rossell Women's Hospital, Montevideo.
Since increases of risk were found in overweight and in normoweight women, results suggested that proportion and amount of muscle and fat components might play a role as predisposing factors for breast cancer, on a basis of currently existing metabolic interrelationships between adipose and muscular tissue.
As a result of the findings of the study, a broader spectrum of physical activities could be derived, because not only fat reduction is under consideration, but also muscle gain, with the aim of improving their respective proportions.
5F Adolescent Breast Health Resource Package: Awareness & Delivery (30971)
Ms. Kimberly Templeton, Ms. J. Taylor-Brown, Ms. B. Szuck, Ms. P. Antonick (Canada)
6F Breast Lobule Maturation and Risk of Carcinogenesis (29377)
Dr. Angela E. Lanfranchi - Somerset Medical Center (USA)
This workshop provides a review of all known reproductive risk factors which can be understood through the paradigm of breast lobule maturation and the susceptibility window - the susceptibility window is that time between menarche and full maturation when the breast is most susceptible to carcinogens.
Through knowledge of the maturation process and the susceptibility window, women can minimize their breast cancer risk by limiting exposure to carcinogens during the window and by shortening the length of their window. The literature to date, supporting possible development of strategies to reduce breast cancer risk through shortening the susceptibility window by inducing the breast maturation process will be reviewed.
Strategies to lower breast cancer risk will be discussed with regard to both individually and government supported policy and educational programs. Further areas of research into biologic mechanisms for protective lobular maturation will be reviewed, as it pertains to the use of hCG.
7F Multicultural Outreach - Cancer Education and Screening Project (29693)
Ms. Katie Watters & Ms. Anna Ling - CancerCare Manitoba (Canada)
The goal of this project is to improve breast and cervical cancer screening rates among women from five immigrant communities in Manitoba (Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Filipino and Portuguese), by addressing barriers related to culture, access, transportation, and language.
The project involved eleven community agencies/partners and included the following project activities: the development of evaluation tools for each phase of the project, the establishment of an advisory committee in each of the 5 cultural communities, cultural sensitivity training for 3 community agencies whose staff provide screening services, and a video and evaluation forms were translated into 5 languages.
The presentation will review the process used to reach out to immigrant women. Culturally sensitivity training activities, used in the project, will be woven into the presentation. There also will be time for questions.
8F 7 Step Breast Cancer Prevention LifeStyle Diet (30589)
Dr. Susan Wadia-Ells - The National Breast Cancer Prevention Project (USA)
The workshop offers grassroots women, breast cancer prevention advocates, and wellness practitioners, a chance to look at the U.S. breast cancer epidemic as an expanding and profitable industry.
The workshop will explore why less than 10% of all public and private funding in the U.S. goes to research and education focused on stopping breast cancer before it stops, and why the U.S. remains ten years behind the E.U. in passing ‘breast cancer prevention' regulations and legislation.
The workshop offers a ‘7-step lifestyle diet' designed to immediately decrease breast cancer risk factors through exercise and losing excess body fat, along with understanding the known risks inherent in mammograms, rBGH milk, oral contraceptives and HRT drugs.
Presenters will lead a discussion on the benefits of creating an independent, progressive, social change campaign, based on a social entrepreneurship (for profit) structure, rather than on the traditional non-profit organizational model.
9F The Birth and Development of a Breast Cancer Foundation (29449) Implementing Early Detection Clinics - A System (29450)
Ms. Lois C. Crooks - Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt (Egypt)
The Birth and Development of a Breast Cancer Foundation: Inspired by the 2002 World Breast Cancer Conference in Victoria, Canada, a group of healthcare professionals from Cairo, Egypt were motivated to create an organization to address the issue of breast cancer and the lack of resources in Egypt.
This presentation will bring hope to many communities and individuals working in developing counties who are facing roadblocks. This session will highlight how the Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt managed to create a branch of Egypt's Ministry of Health, two university cancer centers and two private charity hospitals. The BCFE experience is exciting and an example of how issues of ignorance, fear, misinformation, and social stigma, in one developing country, is being dealt with.
Never doubt what a small group of concerned individuals can do. Participants should be prepared to be inspired.Implementing Early Detection Clinics - A System: The Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt (BCFE) will present a plan it has developed and tested, to provide training and logistical assistance to hospitals and organizations in Egypt, wishing to set up early detection clinics.
Areas to be explored during the workshop include:
- Selection of location appropriate for the target group
- Arrangement of space to provide efficient traffic flow and privacy
- Work flow to create efficiency and convenience for clients
- Training of interviewers to capture data
- Training of nurses to assist doctors and speak knowledgeably with women
- Training of female non-surgeon doctors to do breast exams in some conservative societies
- System coordinating mammography unit and clinic
- Follow up care referral system
- Plan for subsidizing service of applicable to target group
- and, a Marketing plan